


make it up (and start it over)

by delightfulalot



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Didn't Know They Were Dating, F/F, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Rule 63, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-22 19:39:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 30,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delightfulalot/pseuds/delightfulalot
Summary: Mitch is pretty sure pretending to date is the absolute worst way to get over someone, but -- she doesn’twantto forget the whole thing, so she blurts, “I’ll do it. Let’s -- let’s do it. Let’s fake girlfriend this shit up.”“Really?” Auston asks, and she sounds so disbelieving but also so happy, and when Mitch looks over at her she’s got this tiny little grin on her face and Mitch can’t do anything but grin back and agree again.





	1. make it up (and start it over)

**Author's Note:**

> haha i have been working on this for OVER A YEAR. WHAT. it originally started as me just being like MATTHEW TKACHUK IS AUSTON'S EX-BOYFRIEND AND AUSTON HAS TO GO TO HIS WEDDING BUT DOESN'T WANT TO GO ALONE and then it spiraled into this and now auston and mitch are girls and mostly everyone else is not. there's probably like 10k words of team usa kids that i did VERY little research about. i have never been to calgary and have only been to toronto twice so please forgive any inaccuracies. 
> 
> thanks go to dear darling julie and jas who read (most of this) over yesterday with a very quick turnaround and also julie has been encouraging me to write this the WHOLE time and helping with any questions i had and jas and i went on numerous cafe writing dates to finish this (also shoutout to the white chocolate mocha from blossom cafe in rochester mi, u da real mvp).
> 
> title from carly rae jepsen's first time. [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Kut6NTE0ljtLLBdbvqHpN) is a spotify playlist i put together that doesn't even INCLUDE that song. untagged relationships and notes are at the end, after the mostly porn-y coda. 
> 
> this is mostly incredibly fluffy and horribly self-indulgent and i won't apologize!!!

“Mail’s here!” Mitch calls as she lets herself into their apartment, hands full. Over on the couch Auston looks up from whatever work she’s doing in front of the TV and laughs. 

“Mail’s _been_ here for like a week,” she says. Mitch has the only key to the mailbox and is notoriously bad at remembering to check it, sue her. She shrugs and starts going through it. 

“It’s mostly junk,” she says. 

“That’s true,” Auston says, coming over to help her sort. 

“You make _one donation_ to a charity and they spend all their money trying to get you to send more,” Mitch bitches, making an entire pile of _donate!_ envelopes. 

“The only solution is to obviously never help others,” Auston deadpans. Her hair’s down around her shoulders and slightly messy and she’s pushed her glasses up into it as she sorts through her own stack. It’s -- it’s a good look. 

“Obviously,” Mitch says, a beat too late, before pulling out a new Bauer catalog with Jonathan Toews on the cover. 

“Oh, I’ll take that,” Auston says immediately, reaching for it. “What?” she asks when Mitch just raises her eyebrows at her. “I need new gloves.” 

“Suuuuure you do,” Mitch says. Auston’s cheeks are pink as she buries herself in the catalog, muttering. Mitch hides her own smile as she keeps looking through the mail. She pulls out a shiny, fancy envelope next. The return address is on the back of it, and it has Matthew Tkachuk’s name next to some girl’s name in fancy script. When she flips it over to see who it’s for, it says _Auston Matthews_ in that same fancy script. 

“I always forget you know Chucky,” Mitch says, tossing the envelope to Auston, where it lands awkwardly against her catalog and bounces to the floor. 

“High school sweethearts,” Auston jokes like she always does, bending down to pick it up. She sort of freezes when she sees it closer. Picks it up slowly. 

Mitch isn’t really paying attention, but Auston looks weird, so she does kind of a double take and watches as Auston slowly rips into the envelope and reads the thick card that comes out of it. Her face pales and it honestly looks like she stops breathing for a minute. She puts her glasses back on and keeps staring at the card, seemingly in shock.

“Aus?” Mitch asks. Auston shakes her head, shoves the card at Mitch’s chest. She takes it, reads it over. 

It’s a wedding invitation, for Chucky and some girl named Sophie, in about six months. Mitch isn’t sure what’s so bad about that -- she’d be pretty stoked to go to her high school BFF’s wedding. None of her friends have gotten there yet, though, not even Davo. 

“Pissed you have to go to Calgary, huh?” Mitch asks, because it seems like the most logical reason for Auston’s reaction. Still not _that_ logical, but she’s weird about the cold, and Calgary in late May still isn’t that warm. 

Auston huffs out a laugh that honestly just sounds more like a sigh, and then she groans and puts her head in her hands. She mumbles something angrily. 

Mitch wraps a hand around one of Auston’s wrists, tugs gently. “Speak up, bud,” she says, soft. 

Auston sighs, drops her hands. “We really _were_ high school sweethearts,” she says, looking directly at Mitch, who can feel her eyes go wide. 

“Oh,” she says when it seems like Auston’s waiting for her to say something. And then, _“Oh_ ,” when she actually thinks about what Auston’s saying. “Wait. Chucky’s the ex you moved here to get away from? Matthew Tkachuk. He’s the reason you moved to Canada.” 

Auston groans again, takes the card back from Mitch. “Everyone’s an idiot in high school, Marns.” 

“Okay,” Mitch says, and she can feel the teasing grin spreading across her face, isn’t sure she wants to stop. “But the big terrible ‘love of your life’ romance you had in high school _and_ college was with _Matthew Tkachuk_.” 

“I liked his curls, shut up,” Auston mutters, but she’s trying not to smile even as she reads over the card again. Mitch mentally fist-pumps, but can’t celebrate too much because Auston sighs. She sounds sad. Mitch hates it. 

“Feels like an asshole move not to go,” Auston says, and Mitch shrugs. 

“Kinda seems like an asshole move to invite you,” she says. Auston shakes her head. 

“Nah. We always said we’d go to each other’s weddings.” She says it soft, rubbing a finger over Chucky’s upraised name on the invite, and Mitch -- Mitch can’t take it. 

“I’ll go with you,” she blurts. 

Auston looks up at her. 

“I mean,” Mitch says, and she can feel her cheeks burning. “If you want me to, I’ll tag along. Give you someone firmly in your corner.”

“You’d do that?” Auston asks, like she can’t really believe it. 

“Totally,” Mitch says. 

“I don’t know,” Auston says, but it’s the way she always says it when Mitch suggests something and she doesn’t want to give in too easy. She always gives in, though. 

“C’mon, Matthews,” Mitch wheedles. “We’ll get drunk and hit on the whole wedding party, it’ll be great.” 

Auston grins. “Yeah,” she says, nodding. “Yeah, okay. Come with me to my ex-boyfriend’s wedding.” 

“Dope,” Mitch says, grinning back, and Auston laughs. 

-

Truthfully, Mitch forgets about the whole thing for a while. She gets busy at work, and then it’s Christmas, and the spring wedding of her roommate’s ex-boyfriend takes a backseat to real life. 

She and Auston go to the Christmas market again, like they’ve done every year since they met. They buy each other ugly sweaters, and then get hot chocolate and go on the ferris wheel before exchanging them. Mitch thinks she did a pretty good job this year -- she found something that’s both fuzzy _and_ covered in cats in Santa hats -- although nothing will compare to her first year, when she found an “RIP Harambe” shirt and Auston wore it unironically for most of December. Auston, though, found a sweater with a hockey-playing Santa Claus on it, complete with fuzzy beard and missing teeth. 

“No way,” Mitch says, laughing, touching the beard. “It’s so soft!” 

“I know,” Auston says, grinning. “And check out the sleeves, they’re Freddy Kreuger sleeves.” And they are, alternating black and red stripes just like the _Nightmare on Elm Street_ monster. 

“That’s _sick_ ,” Mitch says. “Dude, we’ve gotta take a picture with Santa with these on.” 

Auston laughs. “We’re gonna look like total tools.” 

“So you’re used to it,” Mitch grins. “C’mon, let’s go.”

They find a bathroom to change their shirts. Auston’s is almost just a shade too small, her shoulders and chest threatening to bust out, pulling up just a little at the bottom to show a hint of her abs, and like -- Mitch wouldn’t say it’s _working for her_ , or whatever, but she is just a little bit too speechless when Auston smiles that dumb smile at her. 

“Lookin’ good,” Auston says, and Mitch snaps out of it, reaches out to touch the fuzzy sleeve of Auston’s sweater -- at her wrist, so she’s not tempted to squeeze Auston’s bicep, or something ridiculous like that. 

“You too,” she says, and Auston wraps her hand around Mitch’s hand on her wrist to keep her there and tugs her over to the line to take their picture with Santa, only dropping it when they’re all lined up. They’re obviously some of the oldest people there without kids, and they get a couple of funny looks, but the guy who plays Santa is nice, and he likes Mitch’s sweater. They lean in on either side of him, big dumb grins on their faces. It ends up costing $25 to actually get a copy of the picture to take home, but Auston dishes that out, no problem. 

“We should make this our Christmas card or something,” she says when they’re heading home that evening, the Christmas market all lit up in the dark behind them. 

Mitch laughs. “We’re definitely not ‘sending out Christmas cards’ kind of people,” she says. 

“We could be,” Auston says, knocking her shoulder into Mitch’s, “but you’re right. Guess I’ll just have to settle for sticking it on the fridge.” 

And she does, putting it right in the middle, directly to the left of Chucky’s wedding invitation. 

It’s -- it looks nice there, next to the reminder of the wedding they’re going to across the country. Mitch maybe reaches out a hand to touch the picture the first time she comes across it in the middle of the night, traces the date on the bottom of it when she gets a glass of water. 

They look nice together, the two of them, that’s all. 

-

Auston goes home for a week for Christmas, and Mitch takes her to the airport in an early morning whirlwind of almost forgotten keys (“I will never forgive you for showing me that _Friends_ episode if you don’t, in fact, ‘got the ke-eys?’” Auston says, leaning against the wall outside their apartment while Mitch digs through her backpack. The imitation of Monica when she’s yelling at Rachel for them getting locked out of their apartment is downright terrifying in her slow, still half-asleep voice.

“I swear to god they’re in here,” Mitch says, fighting through what seems like a truly absurd number of socks. 

Auston sighs. “We still need to stop at Timmies, I am _not_ awake yet.” 

“A-ha!” Mitch wraps her fingers around her lanyard and tugs her keys out. “Our _Friends_ marathon can stay intact.” 

“You’re the only one excited about that, Mitchy,” Auston says, but Mitch knows she doesn’t mean it) and then she heads right over to her parents’ place for the week, instead of going back home to an empty apartment. It always feels too quiet and cold when Auston’s not there, and Mitch is lucky enough that her parents live close enough so it’s a quick drive when she needs to stop by for something, but long enough that she doesn’t feel bad not coming home every weekend. It’s pretty great. 

Her brother’s in town for the holiday week, and so are Davo and Stromer, so after fake wrestling Chris into a hug and giving her mom a kiss on the cheek, Mitch heads over to Stromer’s place. 

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” Mrs. Strome says when she opens the door, and Mitch grins at her. 

“Missed you too,” she says, and Trish rolls her eyes and pulls Mitch into a hug. 

“Dylan and Connor are downstairs. Please tell them I’d love to see their faces sometime today?” 

“Of course,” she says, before heading for the Strome basement. Davo is sprawled on the couch, snoring, and Dylan is on an air mattress on the floor, dicking around on his phone. 

“Morning, loser,” Mitch says, flopping on top of him and making the mattress bounce hard enough to dislodge him. Mitch cracks up, even while Dylan is swearing at her and Connor blinks awake. 

“You’re an asshole,” Dylan says from where he’s ended up on the floor between the bed and the couch. 

“You love me,” Mitch says, making a kissy face at him. 

“Hey, Marns,” Connor says through a giant yawn. “When’d you get here?” 

“Two minutes ago,” Mitch says. Dylan sighs. 

“And already ruining my day.” 

“Hey, at least I didn’t show up without a warning. I could have. I took Auston to the airport at buttcrack early.” Mitch leans back on the mattress, closes her eyes. 

“Took Auston to the airport, huh? Isn’t that like a girlfriend thing?” Dylan fucking _sounds_ like he’s smirking, the dick. 

“Or a roommate thing, you asshole.” Mitch reaches out without opening her eyes, swats at him backhanded. By the sound he makes, Mitch is pretty sure she caught him in the stomach. Good.

“Sounds pretty girlfriend-y to me,” Connor pipes up, and what the fuck, Mitch thought _he_ at least was on her side. 

“Who picked you up at the airport?” Mitch asks, leaning up on her elbows to look at Connor. She ignores Dylan, looking way too smug. 

“My mom,” Connor shoots back. “Lauren took me to the airport in Edmonton, though.” 

Dylan, impossibly, looks even more smug. Mitch sighs, flops back onto the mattress, which bounces a little with her weight. 

“Whatever,” she says. “You’re both dicks.” 

“Yeah, but we’re dicks that care about you,” Dylan says. He kicks softly at Mitch’s ankle and she turns to look at him. 

“What.” 

“Seriously, man. Have you confessed your big gay love to Auston yet?” 

Mitch groans, loud, while Connor says Dylan’s name disapprovingly. 

“What?” Dylan asks, raising both hands in surrender. “What did I say?” 

Mitch pulls a pillow out from under her back and wings it at Dylan’s face. “You don’t have to say ‘big gay love’ everytime, you asshole.” 

“Excuse me for trying to be specific.” 

“It’s _rude_ ,” Mitch says, and Dylan opens his mouth to shoot something back -- probably something else rude -- but Connor just clears his throat so they’ll look at him, just like he used to do when he was captain of their high school hockey team. 

Connor takes a beat, and just when Mitch is about to roll her eyes and look away, he asks, “Okay but _have_ you said anything to Auston about your crush like we told you to?” 

Mitch reaches behind herself for another pillow and, when she can’t find any, pulls off her own shoe and throws it at Connor’s face. Connor lifts his hands up to protect himself just in time -- honestly, Mitch wouldn’t have thrown it if she didn’t have faith Connor would -- and then just sits there, the shoe on his lap, looking befuddled. 

“The fuck,” he says softly with feeling after a minute. 

“ _No_ , I haven’t said anything, and I’m _not going to_ ,” Mitch says, for what feels like the millionth time. 

“Why _not_?” Dylan asks, and it’s straight up almost a whine. “What’s the big deal? You know she’s not straight, just tell her you want to jump her bones!” 

Mitch hates her friends. She really does.

“Just because neither of us are straight doesn’t mean she’s _into me_ , Strome,” Mitch says, really slowly. Dylan and Connor both snort in disbelief, and then look at each other with identical grins on their faces and high five. 

“Jesus Christ,” Mitch mutters. 

“Look,” Connor says. “You guys are close friends, right?” 

Mitch nods, not sure where this is going. 

“So, even if she’s not interested, she’ll let you down easy. But I’ve seen the way you guys act around each other. There’s _no way_ she’s not interested.” 

Mitch starts shaking her head halfway through Connor’s sentence. “I’m telling you, man, it’s not possible. And she’s my roommate and my _best friend_.” 

“Hey,” Dylan says, pouting. Mitch just reaches out and wraps a hand around his shoulder. 

“She’s the person I’m closest to in Toronto, and I just -- I can’t lose that.” Mitch shrugs. “Even if it means I pine for the rest of my life, at least I’ll have Auston in it.” 

There’s a pause while everyone lets that sink in, and then Dylan starts making retching noises. 

“God, Marns, that was so sweet I think I’m gonna puke.” 

Mitch uses the hand still wrapped around Dylan’s shoulder to shove him, but she’s smiling, and so are Connor and Dylan. It’s nice, it really is. 

“Can we talk about something, _anything_ else?” she asks, and Connor takes that opportunity to talk about the Leafs’ cap situation, which keeps them occupied for just long enough for everyone to forget about her and Auston. 

That’s the last they talk about it while they’re all home for Christmas, and Mitch concentrates on catching up with them in person, and then with helping her mom with everything she has to do when she goes home. It’s one of those weeks that feels like it’ll never end and all too short at the same time, a quick whirlwind of food and presents and Christmas carols and lights, and before Mitch feels like she’s even gotten a chance to breathe, she’s driving back to Pearson to pick up Auston on the night of the 30th, a giant tote bag full of leftovers in her backseat. 

Auston’s extra wrapped up when she gets to Mitch’s car, her skin -- the small amount of it Mitch can see above her scarf and below her toque, past her glasses -- just that touch more golden it gets anytime she goes home to the sun for any amount of time. 

“It’s freezing,” she complains, opening Mitch’s backseat to drop her bag. 

“Watch the food!” 

“Are these cookies?” Auston asks, and before Mitch can turn around to answer her, she’s dropping into the passenger seat, a tupperware container of cookies in her hand. 

“My mom sent those especially for you,” Mitch says.

“Really?” Auston’s cheeks are red when she unwinds her scarf and Mitch can see them, but she’s not totally sure if it’s because of the cold or the cookies. 

“Yup.” Mitch pulls into traffic, turning her attention back to the road. 

“I love your mom,” Auston says through a mouthful of cookie, and Mitch laughs. 

-

The next night they go to a New Year’s Eve party at Zach and Willy’s house. Mitch is ready to go first, because of course she is, so she sits on the couch and scrolls through insta until Auston finally comes into the living room, fluffing her hair so it sits artfully disheveled just the way she wants. She’s not wearing her glasses, like she never does when the evening includes a lot of drinking, but she is wearing a fitted three-piece purple suit with a black button-down, and her skin looks gloriously tan. 

Mitch tries not to drop her phone into her lap, but it’s a near thing. Auston looks _good_. 

And then she looks over at Mitch and scoffs. “ _That’s_ what you’re wearing?” 

“What’s wrong with it?” Mitch asks, looking down at herself. She’s wearing her ugly Santa sweater over a nice pair of jeggings that show off her ass and thighs but, like. Tastefully. “I mean, it’s no _suit_ ,” Mitch continues, and Auston rolls her eyes but lets it go.

“Do you have like a little gift bag or something?” 

“Probably?” Mitch says, but she’s not really sure. She heads to her room, digs through the bag of stuff her family sent her home with. “What’s it for?” she calls back out to the living room. 

“For Zach and Willy’s housewarming gift,” Auston says, all matter-of-fact like that’s a thing Mitch should _know_ , or something. 

“What,” Mitch says flatly, coming back out of her room to hand Auston the bright blue gift bag Mitch’s mom used for the socks she got her this year. 

“They just moved in together and they’re throwing a party, they get a present,” Auston says, the _duh_ implied, and then she takes the bag with her to the kitchen. Mitch trails after her. 

“Don’t say that like it’s something everyone knows,” Mitch says. “Why didn’t _we_ get presents when we moved in together?” 

“One, because we had just met each other and didn’t have enough friends who knew both of us to care, and two, because we aren’t _living_ together, we’re just roommates, Mitchy.” Auston inspects the potted plants of succulents and herbs on the windowsill over the sink and picks the least dead-looking one and puts it into the gift bag carefully. “You know, you’re supposed to water these.” 

Mitch pulls a glass out of the drying rack and fills it with water before haphazardly sprinkling it over the plants, keeping her eyes on Auston while she does. Auston has opened one of their junk drawers and pulled out that fancy tissue paper stuff people always use to stuff gift bags with, and she’s carefully stuffing it around the plant. Mitch watches for just the edge of too long, and then tries to get back to the topic at hand. 

“That’s bullshit, roommates should get presents too.” 

“Too bad,” Auston says. She does one final, like, fluff of the tissue paper in the bag and then looks up at Mitch. “You ready?” 

Mitch reaches out and pulls the tag that says _To Mitchy_ off the bag and nods. “Let’s do this.” 

-

Mitch doesn’t notice how quiet Auston’s being until they’re halfway to the party, and Auston reaches out and turns the music down. 

“Hey, Mitchy?” she asks, and it’s still almost too low for Mitch to hear. 

“Yeah?” Mitch asks back, and it comes out quiet too. 

“This is gonna sound weird, but I need you to do me a favor. And like. You don’t _have_ to, obviously, unless you want to, but I’d really appreciate it if you did?” 

She sounds so nervous, more nervous than Mitch has ever heard her. She looks away from the road for a second and glances over at her; Auston’s staring down at her hands twisted together in her lap and Mitch is suddenly, just like, _so fond_. Her heart is full and in her throat and she has to swallow around it to say, “Anything, man. You know that.” And it’s maybe too earnest, but it’s true, so. 

Auston takes a deep breath, and then another, and then she says in a rush, “I told my mom we were dating so we need to pretend to be together until Matty’s wedding at least.” 

And. 

What. 

“What,” Mitch says flatly, not sure if she heard that right. 

Auston sighs, and this time when she talks it’s at a normal speed. “Matty showed up at my mom’s Christmas party and, like, kinda cornered me? They got my RSVP for the wedding and he said the plus one was only meant for serious partners, and I guess I kinda panicked and told him we _were_ serious. And then he said my mom told his that I was single, so I had to be like, ‘oh, it’s new, I haven’t told her yet,’ and then he pretty much watched while I told her we were dating at our family Christmas party.” 

“That’s...bullshit,” Mitch says, and Auston looks over at her quickly, hurt. 

“I know, Mitchy, I’m really sorry, but it was the only way you could come to the wedding and I just --” she exhales, loud. “I really don’t think I could do it alone, dude.” 

“No, not that,” Mitch says, and Auston lets out another big breath, but when Mitch looks over at her, she still looks worried. “Like, watching you tell your mom we were dating like he didn’t believe you is, like, really shitty of Chucky, what the fuck.” 

“Yeah,” Auston says slowly. “Yeah, like is it really that weird for us to be dating? Why didn’t he just take my word for it, or whatever?” 

“Exactly!” Mitch says. “We could totally be dating.” 

“Yeah, my mom was into it right away.” 

“Really?” Mitch asks. She’s met Ema, she likes her a lot, and it’s honestly kind of flattering that she thinks Mitch is good enough for her daughter. 

“Yeah, she was all smug and like ‘I told you she’d, um, be a good person to date’.” Auston kind of trips over her words, like that’s not what she meant to say, and this time, when Mitch glances over at her, her cheeks are red. Mitch grins. 

“Nice, Ema Matthews seal of approval. So is she visiting soon, or do you just want me to be around when you guys Skype, or what? How are we going to make sure your mom knows we’re dating?” 

“Well,” Auston starts, wincing. “I kinda --” She sighs. “You know how everyone we know is a big fucking gossip?” 

Mitch laughs, nods. Auston nods back. 

“Yeah, I’m only bringing this up now because Zach knows Werenski and Larks and obviously their moms know _my_ mom and I don’t want it to get back to them that we’re not, like, for real, and then Matty straight up bans you from the wedding, or whatever.”

“Okay,” Mitch says slowly. “So. We have to tell all our friends we’re dating too?” 

“Not _all_ of them,” Auston says, and it’s quiet and worried and kinda sounds like she’s about to tell Mitch to just forget the whole thing and, like. 

It’s weird, and Mitch is pretty sure pretending to date is the absolute worst way to get over someone, but. She doesn’t _want_ to forget the whole thing, so she blurts, “I’ll do it. Let’s -- let’s do it. Let’s fake girlfriend this shit up.” 

“Really?” Auston asks, and she sounds so disbelieving but also so _happy_ , and when Mitch looks over at her she’s got this tiny little grin on her face and Mitch can’t do anything but grin back and agree again. 

“Yeah, man, I’m here for you. Just -- can you do one thing for me?” 

“Anything,” Auston says earnestly. “I really think you’re saving my sanity, Mitchy.” 

Mitch smiles, soft, and then says, “Can you ditch the jacket? Like, your outfit’s fine with a vest, but I really think the three-piece thing is overkill.” 

Auston laughs, but when they get to Zach and Willy’s, she leaves her suit jacket in the car.

Mitch is ringing the doorbell when she realizes something. 

“Should we, like, hold hands or something? To sell this whole thing, I mean.” 

Auston frowns. “We don’t have to? We don’t have to like, announce it. Do whatever feels natural.” 

Mitch nods, and then, quick, she grabs Auston’s hand and laces their fingers together. Auston immediately flushes red, but then Willy’s opening the door. 

“Hey, you came,” Willy says, drawing the first word out. He’s got a drink in one hand but he still reaches out to pull first Auston, and then Mitch into a hug. Auston has to drop Mitch’s hand to hug Willy back, since she’s still holding the housewarming gift in her other hand. 

“This is for you and Zach,” Auston says, holding up the bag as Willy pulls out of his hug with Mitch. Willy laughs. 

“You got us a New Year’s present?” 

“Housewarming gift,” Mitch clarifies, and Willy laughs again. 

“Babe!” he calls back into the apartment, and Zach’s head shoots up from where he’s talking to someone Mitch doesn’t recognize. Willy waves Zach over to them, and then waves Auston and Mitch in. “Come in, come in,” he says, and they step into the apartment and take their coats off. Auston holds out her hand for Mitch’s coat, tucks it over her own already on her arm, and Mitch can’t help the small smile that spreads across her face. 

“Hey, guys,” Zach says, wrapping an arm around Willy’s waist as soon as he can. The happy smile on Willy’s face gets bigger, and he leans into Zach, just a little bit, as he shows him the gift bag. 

“Auston and Mitch brought us a housewarming gift.”

“That’s so sweet, guys, you didn’t have to,” Zach says, but he’s already digging his free hand into the bag. He laughs as he pulls out the succulent. “Very nice, just perfect for over the kitchen sink.” 

“That’s where we keep ours,” Mitch says, and Auston shoots her a look, but Mitch barely notices because Zach is watching them, his head tilted like he’s figuring something out. 

“Would you like something to drink?” he asks, taking their coats to hand them off to Willy, because Zach is nothing if not an excellent host. When Mitch and Auston nod, Zach leads them to the drink table. 

It’s a nice party, full of people Mitch has either never met before or knows from her job with Willy, and Mitch doesn’t mean to stick to Auston’s side, but Auston’s always been a little bit less inclined to make friends with everyone she meets unless it’s for work, so Mitch hangs around at first to, like, make sure she’s comfortable. 

And then she hangs around because she _likes_ Auston, a lot, and they’ve been busy lately and haven’t spent as much time together and also Auston was just out of town yesterday, so Mitch is just making up for lost time. 

Whatever. 

It’s fine. 

Halfway through the night they finally meet up with their intrepid hosts again, standing in a clump with the two of them and a couple of people Mitch has never met before, a very tall man with bright orange hair and an athletic brunette, who’s probably the same height as Mitch when they’re both in flats. The brunette is in heels, though, so she towers over her, just a little. 

“I have to ask,” Zach starts, and Mitch can tell he’s well on his way to drunk from the way he’s talking, not to mention the way Willy’s arm around his waist seems to be holding him up. “I heard from a little birdy that there might be something going on with you two?” He takes a sip of his drink and waggles his eyebrows a little, a move he’s no doubt learned from Willy. 

Auston, immediately, blushes and takes a sip of her own drink, like this whole thing isn’t her idea. Mitch just grins, raises her own eyebrows at Zach. 

“Where’d you hear a thing like that?” Mitch leans into Auston, just a little, who somehow goes even redder, but manages to keep her ground, taking Mitch’s weight. 

“Wha -- it’s _true_?” Willy asks, eyes wide, and Auston finally, mercifully, seems to come back to herself. She nods. 

“Yeah, we’re -- we’re together,” she says, and the smile on Willy’s face is _blinding_. 

“Congratulations,” he says. He looks like he’d be hugging them if he didn’t have his arm around Zach. Mitch reaches down to grab Auston’s hand, slots their fingers together. 

“It’s new,” Mitch says. “But it’s good.” She turns to look at Auston, like she thinks she would if this were real and -- and Auston’s already looking back at her, a soft smile on her face. 

“Yeah. It’s good,” Auston says, and squeezes Mitch’s hand. Mitch can feel herself blushing, so she turns her head away, but she keeps Auston’s hand tight in her own. 

“How’d you meet?” the brunette asks. 

“Well,” Mitch starts, and then -- “I’m sorry, what’s your name again?” 

“Hilary,” she says.

“Well, Hilary, we’re roommates.”

“Oh my god, they were roommates,” the redhead says, completely deadpan. Hilary swats at him; Zach starts laughing so hard he almost falls over, and Willy reaches over to high-five him.

“Good one, Fred,” he says. 

“Yeah, alright, I’ll give that to you,” Mitch says, holding out her hand for a high-five too. Fred obliges, a little twinkle in his eye. Mitch grins and launches back into her story. “So we’ve been roommates for like, what, two and a half years?” She looks at Auston for confirmation, who nods. 

“It’ll be three years in July.” 

“So two and a half years,” Mitch repeats, grinning. Auston blushes and laughs. “And a few weeks ago, everything kinda just...changed.” Mitch shrugs, not sure how to go into more detail, or if more detail is actually needed, but luckily Auston picks up the slack. 

“It was the Christmas market,” Auston says. Mitch looks at her again; she’s still looking at Mitch, like she hasn’t been able to take her eyes off her this whole time. “We go every year and buy each other ugly sweaters,” Auston explains to the group around them, finally looking away from Mitch. “And this year she bought me this tight fuzzy thing and I bought her that.” He points at Mitch’s chest. 

“Isn’t it the fucking greatest?” Mitch asks and grins at everyone. 

“Hockey Santa!” Zach exclaims, and Willy cracks up next to him, burying his face in Zach’s shoulder while Zach grins. 

“Mitch made us take pictures with the Santa there in our sweaters,” Auston says, “and it felt, like, really couple-y, and kinda, like, charged? D’you know what I mean?” 

Hilary nods. Willy looks at Zach, who’s got his head on Willy’s shoulder now, and nods too, a soft smile on his face. Mitch was _there_ and didn’t feel it then but even she knows what Auston means, looking at her now. She uses the hand she’s still got tucked in Auston’s to pull Auston closer. Auston looks at her, a little surprised. Mitch keeps her gaze and picks up the story. 

“Then I took her on the ferris wheel, right when it was getting dark, and the lights were going on all around us, and when we got to the top, I kissed her.”

“Excuse you,” Auston says, that small smile on her face that means she’s about to say something she thinks is really clever. “I kissed you first.” 

“Okay, you kissed me first,” Mitch says, but then she looks at everyone else and mouths _I kissed her first_ very obviously. Auston snorts a laugh and pulls Mitch in until their sides are flush against each other, and then she lets go of Mitch’s hand to wrap her arm around Mitch’s waist. 

“We introduced them,” Zach says suddenly and, judging by the way he’s leaning towards Hilary like he’s sharing a secret, louder than he meant to. “Will knew Mitchy from work, and Auston and I have mutual friends, and they both needed a roommate, so we got them together.” 

“Yeah, but Aus and I are the reason you and Willy are _actually_ together,” Mitch says, rolling her eyes. Auston snorts. 

“They had it so bad for each other but just kept, like, playing video games instead of making out,” Auston explains to Fred. Mitch nods next to her. 

“It was really ridiculous. Lots of sad heart eyes.” 

“The happy heart eyes are much better,” Auston says, and, like, flexes her hand against where it’s resting on Mitch’s hip. Mitch doesn’t know if it’s involuntary or what, but she lets herself lean into Auston even more.

“So yeah, maybe they introduced me and Aus, but we’re the real reason these two are having this party.” 

“Thanks,” Hilary says, a small smirk on her face. Mitch tips her drink towards her in a toast while Auston laughs.

“Your sad heart eyes were so much worse than ours ever were,” Zach says, and then he drags Willy away to talk to some of their other guests before Mitch can protest. 

“There were no sad heart eyes!” Mitch sputters after them anyway.

“You two are cute,” Hilary says as Fred drags her off too, and then it’s just Mitch and Auston standing there, with their arms around each other. 

“First test went pretty well,” Auston says. Her hand flexes on Mitch’s hip again like she wants to get it off, so Mitch steps away just enough that Auston’s hand drops. There’s a flash of something across her face, and then she grins at Mitch. “I heard they’re doing shots in the other room.” 

“When did you even hear that?” Mitch asks, but she gestures for Auston to walk ahead of her. “Lead the way,” she says. 

And that’s how Mitch gets really, really drunk just before midnight, drunk enough that when everyone’s counting down and pairing off to find someone to kiss as the new year begins, Mitch looks at Auston, who’s holding her hand -- and, when did that happen? -- and raises her eyebrows and says, “Do you wanna?” 

Auston rolls her eyes but can’t help smiling as she says, “Yeah, let’s do it.” 

The crowd shouts _3, 2, 1! Happy New Year!_ and Mitch uses her free hand to cup Auston’s jaw and bring their lips together. There’s nothing life-changing about it, except that she’s _kissing Auston_. She leans in a little closer, goes onto her toes, and then Auston is dropping her hand so she can wrap her arms around Mitch’s waist. Mitch’s hand is still on Auston’s jaw, and her other hand tangles in Auston’s hair, tugging a little. Auston makes a noise, like a soft gasp, and opens her mouth. Mitch takes advantage and opens her own mouth, and then it is kinda life-changing. 

They kiss until the cheering dies down and the music comes back on, and then they pull apart. 

“You taste like tequila,” Auston says, and Mitch laughs. 

-

They end up crashing in Zach and Willy’s guest room after the party, both of them too drunk to drive home. Zach and Willy might be grown up enough to have a guest room, but they’re still not grown up enough to have an _actual_ bed in it, so really Auston and Mitch spend the night on the pull-out in Zach’s home office. 

Mitch wakes up hot and sweaty on the first day of the year wrapped around Auston like the big spoon. Auston’s still breathing deep and even, so Mitch doesn’t think she’s awake yet. She untangles herself and slips out of the room, only looking back once to see Auston sigh and stretch out on the bed, still asleep. 

Willy’s in the kitchen making pancakes, a freshly brewed pot of coffee next to him.

“Oh thank god,” Mitch says, heading straight for it and then realizing she doesn’t know where the mugs are. 

Willy hands her one wordlessly (but not without a smirk on that handsome face) and flips a pancake. 

“How’d you sleep?” he asks. 

Mitch shrugs as she pours herself coffee. “Not bad. It’s always a little weird to sleep with Auston, but the bed wasn’t as bad as I expected.” 

“You guys don’t sleep together?” Willy asks, really carefully nonchalant. And oh, yeah, they’re supposed to be dating. 

“No, yeah, we do,” Mitch says, right before gulping down probably too much coffee. She coughs. “It’s just, that bed was really small and ours are both bigger, y’know?” 

Willy just _hmms_ and hands over a plate with not enough pancakes. Mitch doesn’t even glance at it, just shoves it back at him for more. 

“And, okay, like. It’s still new. We’re still...figuring that part out.” Mitch drinks the rest of her coffee in one long, slow pull, keeping the mug over her face for as long as she can, because she can _tell_ her cheeks are bright pink. 

“Hey,” Willy says after a minute. Mitch puts the mug down and looks at him. “It’s okay, dude. It’s weird to go from friends to dating. And the roommate thing on top of it is probably extra weird. No judgement, Mitchy. I’m just glad you guys are happy.” 

“Yeah,” Mitch says, looking down. She can tell her cheeks are still pink, but who cares. “We are.” 

“Good,” Willy says. “Now go wake up your girlfriend, the Winter Classic starts in half an hour.” 

-

The weirdest thing about fake dating Auston around all their friends is how _not_ weird it is. 

Like, Zach and Willy make them go out on a “double date night” every other week and besides, like, actually holding hands, it’s not much different then when they’d all go out as a group of friends. Auston still never orders dessert so Mitch still gets two forks or spoons or whatever with hers so Auston can inevitably end up splitting it with her. They still chirp each other and make a really competitive team against Zach and Willy whenever they go bowling or to an arcade or whatever. They still go home together, giggle against each other drunkenly in the elevator up. It’s _easy_ , and normal, and honestly, the only time Mitch really remembers that it’s _not_ normal is when she’s not around Auston and someone brings her up. 

Like when Marty practically attacks her a week after the New Year’s party and Mitch and Auston’s official debut as a “couple.” 

They go out to lunch like they always do, grabbing sandwiches at the place in the lobby of their building, and Marty acts all normal until Mitch takes her first big bite of her sandwich, and then he says, “I can’t believe you’re finally fucking Matthews and you didn’t have the decency to tell me.” 

Mitch chokes so hard she’s pretty sure she sees her life flash in front of her eyes. Contrary to what Marty said, there’s a woeful lack of fucking. 

When she can finally breathe again, tears in her eyes, she takes a sip of her drink, coughs, and says, breathlessly, “What the fuck.” 

Marty’s digging into his own sandwich like Mitch didn’t almost just _die_. “Willy told me you and Matthews are a couple now. I had to hear you’re finally dating your crush from _Nylander_ , Mitchell.” 

Mitch coughs again, taking the plastic lid off her drink so she can gulp big swallows down and not have to look at or talk to Marty for a minute. 

Matt Martin, arguably Mitch’s closest friend at work, is definitely the only person she sees regularly who has seen her get drunk and sad about being in love with Auston and truthfully, if she _were_ actually dating Auston, Marty would’ve been Mitch’s first or second call (or, more likely, included in the first mass text). 

“Auston was right, all our friends are big fucking gossips,” Mitch says, her voice still rough and scratchy. 

“But it’s true, right?” 

Mitch nods but avoids Marty’s eyes. “It’s still new,” she says, fiddling with putting the plastic lid back on her cup. “It’s been about a month, but we didn’t wanna tell anyone until she told her mom at Christmas.” This is their agreed upon story, the one they put together after getting home from Zach and Willy’s, just to make sure they were on the same page. 

Mitch looks up at Marty as soon as she’s done talking. Marty’s leaning back, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline. 

“You don’t seem very happy,” is all he says, and Mitch groans and puts her elbows on the table so she can bury her face in her hands.

“It’s fake,” she says into her hands, and then, when Marty tosses a napkin at her, drops her hands and looks Marty full on. “It’s _fake_ ,” she repeats. “We’re dating around her friends because they’re such gossips and it’d get back to her mom somehow. Her ex is getting married in May and said Auston’s not allowed to bring me unless it’s serious.” 

“ _May_?” Marty asks, and then shakes his head. “This is a disaster waiting to happen, Mitchy.” 

“Only if you let it spread it’s fake,” Mitch says, glaring, before taking another bite of her sandwich.

“You’re pretending to date the girl you’ve been in love with for almost two years,” Marty points out.

“Okay, when you put it like _that_ ,” Mitch says, and Marty laughs. “I’ll be fine.” 

“If you say so,” Marty says, and then thankfully changes the subject to something cute his dog did last weekend, and the rest of lunch is a lot calmer for Mitch. 

Marty does nudge her in the elevator on the way back to the office, concerned face on. “You’ll tell me if you need to talk, right Mouse?” 

Mitch turns bright red at the nickname and nods, grabs Marty right before they separate to their own desks later. “Thanks,” she says, and Marty just nods, tugs on Mitch’s ponytail hard enough to move her head. 

“Asshole,” Mitch mouths at him, and Marty just grins and flashes her heart hands. 

-

Zach shows up to their place the last Saturday in January, when Auston’s out with Willy on their weekly “bro-date” doing whatever it is they do just the two of them. Zach looks frantic, pushing past Mitch into their apartment, not even letting Mitch invite him in, which is very unlike him. 

“Are you okay?” Mitch asks. 

“What are you getting Auston for Valentine’s Day?” Zach asks, ignoring her. 

Mitch is thrown, but it’s been almost a month of faking it in front of Zach and Willy, so she just says, “Uh, not much? We’re going low-key, so probably just, like, candy? And then we’ll go out to dinner?” She can’t help the question marks, but it sounds like a pretty solid plan. Mitch was always good at Valentine’s Day in high school and college, but she doesn’t think Auston really wants a giant stuffed bear holding a heart that says _I Wuv You Beary Much_. 

Zach nods like he paid any attention to what Mitch said and then says, “I don’t know what to get Willy,” in such a stressed out voice Mitch has the urge to make him tea, even though she doesn’t think she’s _ever_ made anyone tea. 

“That’s rough, buddy,” Mitch says, and she starts herding Zach to the kitchen anyway. “Do you want, like, water or something? Maybe a hot cocoa?” 

“Do you have those mini marshmallows?” Zach asks pitifully.

“What do you take us for, a couple of losers?” Mitch grins, and Zach returns her smile, even if it’s a little weak. Mitch gently pushes on Zach’s shoulders and gets him to take a seat at the kitchen table, and then she starts pulling out stuff to make hot cocoa on the stove. 

“What’d you get Willy last year?” she asks while she’s occupied, hoping it’ll help calm Zach down a little. 

“A sweater and some cologne he’d been hinting about and a bunch of chocolate, but like. That was _different_.” 

“How is it different? Isn’t this like your 3rd Valentine’s together?” 

Zach makes an affirming noise; when Mitch looks over at him, he’s got his face in his hands, his elbows on the table, and he looks miserable.

“Hey,” Mitch says, and then, when Zach doesn’t look at her, again. “Hey! What’s different about this one?” she asks when Zach makes eye contact. 

Zach immediately flushes. 

“It’s _real_ now,” he says. 

That gets Mitch’s attention. “What, like it was fake before?” she asks, heart beating fast. 

“Well, no, you’re right,” Zach says, and Mitch doesn’t, like, _deflate_ , but it feels like it, a little bit. 

“It just _feels_ more real,” Zach’s saying, and then he’s looking at Mitch again, and he goes, “I think this is the guy I’m gonna _marry_. What do I get _him_ for Valentine’s Day?” 

And that? That makes it easier. “Stop making it so serious,” Mitch says, getting down the mini marshmallows and mugs. “Don’t think about it like that. It’s still just Willy, man. You love Willy.” 

“Yeah,” Zach says. “I do.” He’s got that big dumb look on his face he gets when he’s around Willy, all soft and fond. Mitch’d chirp him for it but it’s so nice that instead she just kind of quietly aches. 

She _wants_ that. She wants to be in love with her best friend and have it be requited. Wants to freak out about getting serious before realizing they’re the same people they’ve always been, just Mitch and Auston, together against the world. 

Mitch shakes her head and puts Zach’s hot cocoa in front of him, sits down with her own. Decides to share some actual advice, because it’s not like she ever had a _bad_ Valentine’s Day giving out those stuffed bears. “I do have one suggestion, though. It used to _kill_ in high school.” 

-

Mitch and Auston are sprawled out on the couch one night a few days later, watching the Leafs blow another lead, when Auston pats Mitch’s knees where they’re thrown over her lap. 

“Hey,” she says. Mitch looks over at her and smiles. 

“Hey,” she says back. Auston flushes then, for some reason, and she starts tracing the design in Mitch’s pyjama pants with one finger. 

“What are you doing two weeks from Wednesday?” 

Mitch thinks about it for a second and shrugs. “I dunno,” she says. “What’s the date?” 

Auston gets even redder and Mitch is, honestly, fascinated. She hasn’t seen Auston this nervous in a _while_. 

“It’s the fourteenth,” Auston says, and then, real fast: “I got us Leafs tickets, but like, they weren’t expensive, it’s fine, we don’t have to.” 

Mitch goes up on her elbows so she can get a better look at Auston. “Are you telling me you got us Leafs tickets for Valentine’s Day?” 

“Someone at work was practically giving them away, it’s seriously not a big deal,” Auston’s trying to say, but Mitch launches herself across the couch so she can hug Auston. She ends up with her arms around Auston’s back and her legs still across Auston’s lap so she’s kind of sitting on Auston’s lap, face in her curtain of messy hair.

Auston doesn’t seem to care, though, just hugs Mitch back and kinda laughs into Mitch’s hair. “Good idea?” 

“You’re the _best_ fake girlfriend anyone could ask for,” Mitch says into Auston’s shoulder. Auston tenses for a second and squeezes Mitch tighter, and then she seems to relax but she’s still hugging Mitch just as tightly. 

“Anything for you,” Auston says, and it feels a little heavy and serious, but Mitch ignores it. 

Instead, she rearranges himself on Auston’s lap so she can see the TV, keeps one arm around Auston and kind of leans her head on Auston’s shoulder as she watches the game. It’s a little more cuddly than they’ve gone for in the past but it feels right, especially when Auston leans her head against Mitch’s during the next commercial break. 

-

“What’s everyone doing for Valentine’s Day?” Patty asks in the breakroom one morning the week of. Mitch is in there, along with Willy and Marty, and like. Normally she’d stay quiet, not say anything unless Willy outright asked her -- as far as Patty knows she’s single, and Marty knows the real truth -- but also, Mitch is a die-hard Leafs fan, and they’re playing the _Habs_ on Wednesday, and she can’t help bragging. 

So almost as soon as Marty’s done talking about the reservations he got at some fancy place for him and Syd, Mitch blurts, “Auston got us Leafs tickets.” 

“What!” Willy shouts. Mitch can tell he’s jealous, and she can’t help grinning at him. 

“What,” Marty says flatly, and when Mitch looks at him, he’s got his eyebrows up all high and judgemental again. 

“That’s great, Mitch,” Patty says in his calm way. “Tina got me tickets to the Sharks once, when we lived in San Jose. I’d suggest buying any food you get that night, just to help show your appreciation.” 

“Good tip,” Mitch says, and Patty nods at her, keeps an eye on her as Willy starts talking. 

“Zach and I aren’t doing anything that exciting. We’re just staying in and I think he’s cooking.” 

Willy is practically pouting, but then Patty turns to him and says, “Sounds romantic. Isn’t it your first Valentine’s living together?” 

Willy nods and bites his lip. “Yeah. I’m a little nervous about it, just ‘cause, like, we just took this really big step, you know?” 

As Patty dispenses with the relationship advice again and Willy nods along, Marty leans toward Mitch. 

“You’re spending Valentine’s Day together?”

“We live together, we spend every day together,” Mitch says. She’s tempted to shove Marty out of her personal space, but doesn’t give in until Marty makes a disapproving _tsk_ noise, his eyebrows in his hair again. 

“Asking for trouble, Marns,” he says, barely moving, and Mitch shoves again. 

“Mind your own beeswax, Matthew.”

“Hey, I’m just looking out for you,” Marty says, and Mitch frowns.

“There’s nothing to look out for,” she says quietly, before raising her voice to say, “Just because _I_ get to see the best team in the world play on Wednesday --”

This time, Willy shoves Mitch. 

Patty stops by her desk later, hands Mitch some paperwork Marty’s been supposed to give to her for a week and then stands there, hands in his pockets. 

“So. You and Auston,” he says when Mitch finally looks back at him, and she immediately flushes. 

“Me and Auston,” she agrees. 

“Are you happy?” he asks. It’s not what Mitch was expecting, but looking back on it, it should have been. She smiles. 

“Yes,” she says. 

Patty nods, smiles back at her. “Do you mind if I tell Tina? She’ll be thrilled you two are happy, I’m sure.” Patty and his wife Christina know and like Auston, have met her at various family functions they’ve had at the office, invited the two of them over to family dinners when he took Mitch under his wing and realized how badly she and Auston could eat sometimes. Telling Patty they’re dating feels like a lie, still, and Mitch feels kinda bad for lying, but also -- she’d feel worse if she told Patty it wasn’t real, like she was disappointing him, or something. 

“You can even tell the kids,” she says, almost without meaning to, but she doesn’t get a chance to take it back because Patty laughs. 

“Brody will be disappointed you’re taken,” he says, eyes sparkling. 

Mitch laughs. “I forgot about his crush! Okay, maybe don’t tell the kids. I don’t wanna break anyone’s heart.” 

“He’s twelve, it’s long overdue,” Patty says, and he pats Mitch’s shoulder. “We’ll have you two over for dinner sometime this month, okay? And you’ll let me know if you need anything, or to talk, anytime.” 

Mitch nods. “Thanks, Patty,” she says, and he smiles and heads back to his office.

Mitch feels shitty for lying to him, just another in a long line of people she’s lying to, but then she thinks about the whole reason she’s doing this: that look on Auston’s face when she saw Chucky’s wedding invitation and thought about going alone, and she sighs. She’s in this for the long haul.

-

Mitch is doing french-braid-pigtails in the bathroom before the game when Auston ducks her head in and says, “Ready to go when you are.” 

Mitch wraps the hair tie around her left pigtail and checks herself out. A little messy, but cute, which is Mitch’s sweet spot. She nods, and then looks over at Auston and snorts. 

“Okay, _no_ , you are _not_ wearing that, I refuse to be seen with you.”

Auston looks down at her suit and frowns. “What’s wrong with it? This is what the players wear, right? Plus, I wore it all day to work, it’s a great fucking suit!” 

Mitch sighs and puts her head in her hands. “You can’t wear a _suit_ to a game, Matthews. You’ll look like a corporate stooge!” 

“Then what am I gonna wear, Marner!” Auston yells as Mitch pushes past her, back to her room.

“Shut up,” Mitch calls from where she’s already digging through her closet for her -- “A-ha!” she shouts triumphantly. She tosses the Sundin jersey to Auston. “It’s perfect. Mats for Matts.” 

Auston makes that face she does when she doesn’t want Mitch to know she wants to smile and moves to, like, just take her suit jacket off and wear the jersey over her fancy slacks. 

Mitch makes a loud buzzer noise and pushes Auston towards her own room. “Jeans or leggings please, don’t make me embarrassed to be seen with you, thank you!” 

“I’m doing you a _favor_ with these tickets, you know!” Auston calls through the door after Mitch closes it firmly behind her. 

“Love you!” Mitch calls sweetly back. She has just enough time to lose all her lives on Toon Blast while she’s waiting -- the fucking jelly levels get her every time -- and then Auston opens the door. She’s wearing the jersey over black skinny jeans that match what Mitch is wearing with her Gilmour jersey, except Auston’s have a tasteful tear in each knee, obviously. 

“Happy now?” Auston asks. She’s scowling like she’s actually mad, but Mitch can see the way her mouth wants to tug up into a smile at the ends. 

“Perfect,” Mitch says, smiling widely back. 

Their outfits make them look even more couple-y than normal, and although they’re unlikely to run into someone who thinks they’re dating, Mitch thinks really seriously about holding Auston’s hand as they walk into the arena, even if Auston’s got her toque up too high on her head just like always and she looks like an idiot. 

A really pretty idiot, though. 

And then Auston reaches out and grabs Mitch’s hand, anyway, when Mitch tries to lead them up the stairs. 

“This way,” Auston says. 

“But this is where the lower bowl seats are,” Mitch says, confused. 

“I know,” Auston says. Her cheeks are pink. 

“Did you -- did you get us lower bowl tickets?” 

“I told you, someone at work was practically giving them away,” she says. She’s not looking Mitch in the eyes, just trying to tug her along. 

“Wait,” Mitch says, standing stock still as realization dawns. “Was this someone who _works for the fucking Leafs_?” 

Auston does publicity at Zach’s dad’s publishing house, and since Zach is a local boy who writes books about hockey, he works with the Leafs a lot, so like, obviously, if someone at Auston’s job was giving away Leafs tickets, it was someone in the organization. 

Auston just nods, finally looking at Mitch, and Mitch claps her free hand over her mouth for a second. 

“Oh my god Auston how good are these seats.” 

Auston grins. “You gotta come with me to see,” she says, and this time when she turns to lead Mitch down the stairs, Mitch follows easily. 

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” Mitch chants quietly the entire way down to their seats, which end up being ten rows back from the penalty boxes, and when they finally get there, and Auston looks nervous again, like Mitch is gonna hate this somehow, Mitch is so happy she wants to kiss Auston, like, right here, in the middle of a still mostly empty Scotiabank Arena. 

She settles for hugging Auston instead, going up on her toes so she can throw her arms over Auston’s shoulders. 

“Good gift?” Auston asks quietly near Mitch’s ear, wrapping her arms around Mitch’s waist. 

“Thank you so much, babe,” Mitch says just as quietly back, the endearment slipping out accidentally. Mitch can’t bring herself to regret it, though, especially when Auston lets out a happy little sigh and holds Mitch a little bit tighter. 

After they’ve settled in and been there for a while, jersey-watching and shooting the shit, someone walks over to them, down the aisle behind theirs, a pretty woman in a skirt suit with a slightly messy side braid and a Leafs lanyard around her neck. She touches Auston’s shoulder first, to get her attention.

“Oh, hi!” Auston exclaims, standing to hug the woman across the back of her seat before turning to face Mitch to introduce them. “Johnny, this is Mitch. Mitch, Johnny.” 

“John Tavares,” the woman says, holding out her hand for Mitch to shake. Her voice is deeper than Mitch expected.

“Mitch Marner,” Mitch says back, standing up and shaking her hand. 

“Oh, I know. I’ve heard all about you,” Johnny says, her eyes sparkling as she looks at Auston. 

“Johnny got us these tickets!” Auston says, a little too loudly. 

“Really?” Mitch asks, and, when Johnny nods, “God, thank you so much, these are definitely the best seats I’ve ever had.” 

“It was no problem. Auston’s mentioned just how big of a fan you are before, so I thought it’d be nice for her to get to surprise you with them.” 

“Yeah, she said you were giving them away, which is just -- it’s so nice of you, this is so cool.” 

“Well, it was Auston’s idea,” Johnny says really obviously, big grin on her face, and Auston is _so red_. 

“Hey I have to ask you about a thing for work,” Auston says in one breath, putting her hand on Johnny’s arm like she’s going to lead her away, and Mitch waves her off.

“That’s my cue,” she says. “You two stay here, I’m gonna head for the restroom before warm-ups start. Johnny, it was a pleasure.” Mitch reaches out to shake her hand again. 

“Truly, the pleasure was all mine.” Johnny is straight up _smirking_ at Auston now. Mitch shakes her hand and leaves them alone. When Mitch comes back with hot dogs and beers for her and Auston, Johnny’s gone.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Auston says, reaching for the food so Mitch can sit down. 

Mitch waves her off. “Only fair,” she says. “You got the tickets.” 

“Thanks,” Auston says, smiling as she takes a sip of her beer. 

“Or actually,” Mitch starts, and watches as Auston blushes before she even says anything about Johnny. “You’ve got a _crush_ on her!” She points at Auston’s face, even as Auston is shaking her head. “You do, you can’t lie to me, you’ve been so red since she came over, I can’t believe this!” Part of Mitch is delighted -- Auston with a crush is honestly usually pretty entertaining, because she forgets to be chill and gets bumbling and awkward -- but part of her is also, weirdly, disappointed. 

“I don’t, I swear, I really don’t. I mean, we’re pretty close, and like, right after we met I maybe did, but.” Auston shrugs. 

“Whatever you say,” Mitch says, even though the only part of that she believes is that Auston’s had a crush on Johnny since they met. “But like. She was definitely giving you the eye tonight.” 

Auston laughs out loud. “I promise you, she was not.” 

“How do you know?” 

“She’s really happily married to some dude who works for the Preds. They’ve got a kid and everything.” 

“I guess they’re looking for a third,” Mitch says, taking a bite of her hot dog. Auston doesn’t even dignify that with a response, just laughs again, that helpless giggle that’s Mitch’s favorite. Mitch grins. 

“Hey,” Auston says when she’s calmed down, softly bumping Mitch’s shoulder with her own. “Seriously. Thanks for the food.” 

Mitch bumps her shoulder back. “Thanks for the ticket.” For a minute they just sit there, smiling softly at each other, shoulders pressed together, before Mitch shakes herself out of it and says, “Besides. Patty told me it was the right thing to do.” 

Auston laughs again. 

-

The game is good -- fast, not a lot of stoppages, and the Leafs are up by two halfway through the second, so Mitch is feeling good during the TV timeout, one arm stretched along the back of Auston’s seat, singing softly under her breath to Sixpence None the Richer’s _Kiss Me_ , when she realizes the song is playing because of the Kiss Cam. 

And then she looks up at the scoreboard and sees herself and Auston in a big pink heart. Mitch looks quickly over at Auston to see her looking back, a soft smile on her face.

“You wanna?” she asks, and Mitch can’t do anything but nod. 

Auston leans in, puts one hand on Mitch’s face, and then they’re kissing. Again. 

There’s a soft cheer but Mitch barely notices it. She wraps her hand around Auston’s wrist, holding Auston’s hand to her face, and kisses Auston back. 

This kiss isn’t as long as the New Year’s Eve kiss, but they definitely kiss until the camera focuses on someone else, and then a little bit longer after that, just in case. 

Mitch can’t stop smiling the rest of the night, and every time she looks at Auston, Auston’s looking back at her, looking just as happy. 

On top of that, the Leafs shut out the Habs. 

-

The thing about it, though. 

The thing about the kiss, and the second kiss, both of them in public but, like, not _for_ anyone, is that they don’t talk about it. 

They just, kinda, go back to normal. 

Except the regular date nights with Zach and Willy. 

And the way they cuddle even more when they watch TV together now, like, with _intent_ , hands playing with each other’s hair or fingers or rubbing over tattoos all the time, which might be because Mitch is already a physically affectionate person, and then every time they go out with Zach and Willy they play it up even more, so like, maybe it’s just bleeding over into their everyday life. 

But they don’t talk about the kisses, and how much they both liked it. 

Because Mitch is pretty sure Auston liked it just as much as she did. 

But like. What does that _mean_. 

-

 _do u wanna get dinner tonight_ , Auston texts Mitch during work one day. 

_no im tired u pick up takeout tonight_ , Mitch sends back, halfway through a stack of paperwork. She doesn’t look back at her phone for over an hour, until she’s finally cleared off her desk, and Auston has texted her three times.

_no like dinner out_

_i have a meeting around the corner from you that should get out when u do_

_i’ll come upstairs, pick you up_

The last message is from only a few minutes ago, and it’s close enough to five that Auston is probably -- and, yep, that’s the elevator going. Mitch types _Patty_ into a message to Auston, and then she doesn’t know what to say. _Patty knows we’re dating_? _Patty THINKS he knows we’re dating_? In the end she accidentally hits send on just _Patty_ , and then Mitch looks up to see the man himself, leading Auston to Mitch’s desk. 

“It’s nice to see the two of you so happy,” Patty is saying, one hand on Auston’s shoulder. “You really should come by for dinner one night, Tina is dying to know the whole story of how you got together.” 

Auston laughs, and Mitch can only tell it’s a little strangled because she knows her so well. “Yeah, of course she knows,” she says, and then she’s shooting Mitch a look. 

“Is that okay?” Patty asks, looking worried. 

“Of course it is,” Mitch says. “Sorry, I bragged about your Valentine’s Day gift,” she says to Auston, who turns the tiniest bit pink and glances quickly at Patty before waving Mitch off.

“That’s fine,” she says, and then, “Hi, by the way.” 

Mitch smiles, wide. “Hi,” she says back, and then Auston leans in and down to kiss Mitch, half on the cheek, half on the lips. 

Auston is visibly pink when she pulls away, and Mitch feels frozen. Patty’s looking at the two of them, amused. 

“You ready to go?” Auston says, and Mitch tries to shake herself without visibly shaking herself. 

“Yeah,” she says, shutting down her computer. “Let’s go to dinner.” She smiles at Auston, and Auston smiles back, easy, tucking Mitch’s arm into her own when Mitch stands up. 

“I’ll see you, Patty,” Mitch calls over her shoulder as Auston leads her away. 

“Have a nice night,” he calls back to them, and Mitch is reasonably sure he’s smiling.

“Are you really mad the Marleaus know?” Mitch asks Auston as they’re waiting for the elevator. She puts her chin on Auston’s shoulder and looks up at her from under her eyelashes. Auston glances over and snorts at how close she is, and it makes Mitch smile so wide she has to hide it in Auston’s shoulder. 

“Nah, I’m not mad,” Auston says. “I kinda forgot that Willy knowing meant Patty would probably find out.” 

“Okay, good,” Mitch says. “Because I told him he could tell the kids.” 

“Wha -- even Brody?” Auston asks, pulling back enough that Mitch isn’t leaning against her anymore but keeping their hands tangled together. Mitch nods and Auston shakes her head. “You know this means we can never go over there again.” 

“Uh, unless you’ve suddenly learned how to feed us we _absolutely_ have to go over there again.” 

“So I can get beat up by a twelve-year-old? Nice to know how much you care about me, Marner.” 

“I’ll protect you,” Mitch says. She’s grinning so wide it _hurts_.

“Oh, you will?” Auston’s grin is almost as big, and Mitch just -- 

She wants to kiss Auston _so much_. 

The moment stretches out, just the two of them grinning at each other. Mitch gets close enough to put her chin on Auston’s shoulder again. Auston’s grin softens and -- and it looks like her gaze drops down to Mitch’s lips, and Mitch starts to go on her toes, bring their faces together --

The elevator dings and breaks the moment, enough that Mitch jolts away from leaning against Auston. Auston doesn’t let Mitch take her hand away, though; she squeezes it tighter to keep Mitch from moving too far away. 

Marty comes out of the elevator and does a double take when he sees them. Mitch watches as he looks down at her and Auston’s hands, and part of her wants to shake Auston off. But Auston’s holding on tight, so Mitch just smiles. 

“Have a good night, Marty,” she says, and lets Auston pull her into the elevator.

-

Dinner with Auston is nice. They go to a slightly upscale place not far from Mitch’s office, fancy enough for cloth napkins but still with chicken tenders on the menu (Mitch doesn’t order them, but she thinks very seriously about it for a few minutes). It’s also a little dark and romantic, but Mitch doesn’t think too much about it. 

“Nice place,” she says after they’ve placed their orders and the waitress has brought them complimentary glasses of wine. 

“Yeah,” Auston says, focusing really seriously on making sure her wine and water glasses line up. “Someone at work mentioned it, so I thought I’d try it out on you.” 

Sometimes Auston will take Mitch to new restaurants to see if they’ll work for client meetings, which is the only reason Mitch has ideas of good places to take her parents to when they come visit her in the city. 

“Oh, someone at work, huh?” Mitch asks, smiling widely. 

“Shut up,” Auston says, ducking her head enough that her hair half falls over her face. Mitch knows that if it were a little lighter in here, she’d be able to see Auston’s blush. 

“No, it’s sweet how much Johnny is looking out for you,” she says, and laughs loudly when Auston makes a disgruntled noise but doesn’t deny it. 

“You’re an asshole,” Auston says. 

“You love it,” Mitch shoots back, and is rewarded with Auston’s small smile as she catches Mitch’s eyes. The look in her eyes is so fond it takes Mitch’s breath away a little. 

“Yeah,” she says, instead of chirping Mitch more. “I do.” 

It’s Mitch’s turn to duck her head and hope the light isn’t showing off her blush, looking down at her plate. She glances back up after a minute and Auston is still smiling at her. 

“Shut up,” Mitch says this time, and Auston lets out a soft little chuckle. 

Mostly their dinner is the same as the hundreds of meals they’ve had since they met. They talk about nothing in particular, tease and laugh at each other. Mitch orders dessert, Auston asks for two spoons. Normal. 

When the check comes, though, Mitch starts to ask the waitress to split it and Auston cuts her off and hands her card to the waitress. 

“Thank you,” she says, as the waitress runs it. She’s seemingly incredibly enthralled in the whole interaction, not looking at Mitch, but Mitch can’t stop looking at Auston. They’ve literally always split the check, unless it was someone’s birthday. 

“Thank you so much,” Auston says after taking her card back, and the waitress says, “You two have a nice night,” and leaves. 

Mitch is still staring at Auston. Auston finally looks back at her and then looks away quickly. “You ready to go?” she asks, and Mitch nods and stands up. 

“Let’s blow this popsicle stand,” she says, holding out her hand, and Auston snorts and takes it and lets Mitch take her home.

Mitch thinks about asking about it -- did Auston pay because it was, like, an actual _date_? But she can’t get up the courage, and then they’re home and bickering about what they’re going to watch on TV through the wall between their rooms while they change into pyjamas, and it’s all so normal that Mitch is almost convinced she made the whole thing up. 

Besides, she thinks as she curls herself into Auston’s side on the couch, Auston’s fingers softly carding through Mitch’s hair, she’s not sure if she could handle the truth, either way. 

-

Mitch doesn’t talk to Marty again for a few days. She gets busy at work, keeps having to work through lunch and send Marty _sorry, can’t today :(_ messages. She feels bad, doesn’t want him to think that she’s avoiding him because she doesn’t know how to explain what exactly she and Auston were doing when they saw him. 

On the other hand, she _doesn’t_ know how to explain it, and every day she misses their regular lunch she feels the tiniest sense of relief. 

Her work does slow down, though, so one morning when Marty messages her _lunch today?_ she can answer back _yes!_

They meet at the elevators, head downstairs together. Marty doesn’t say much, so Mitch does what she’s always done in uncomfortable situations and babbles. This time she gets to talk about her work project -- she’s super proud of it, the first time she’s been put in charge of her own team, and even if it is just her and Willy and Brownie, it’s still really cool. Her rambling leads them all the way downstairs, through buying their food, and into their actual meal. 

Eventually, though, she runs out of things to say, and she ends on a “So, um. Yeah,” and eats her sandwich, watching as Marty just -- just _looks_ at her, kinda thoughtfully. 

“What?” she asks when she can’t take it anymore. 

“What do you know about jewelry?” Marty asks, and it’s so out of the blue that for a minute all Mitch can do is blink. 

“Um. Not...a lot?” 

“What about, like, rings?” 

Mitch starts smiling, slowly, and pretty soon it’s a full-on grin. “Matt Martin,” she says. “Are you gonna propose to Syd?” 

Marty’s eyes are _sparkling_ , even if his cheeks are red, and he’s got a matching giant grin on his face. “Was thinking about it,” he says with a casual shrug that Mitch doesn’t believe for a _second_. “Wanna help me plan?” 

“ _Yes_ ,” Mitch says emphatically, and that’s how she finds herself weaving in and out of a bunch of tiny shops in the Distillery District with Marty the next Saturday, throwing proposal ideas out while Marty gets increasingly picky about what kind of ring he wants to get. 

“I know that engagement rings are supposed to be, like, really fancy,” Marty’s saying as they leave yet another place. “And Syd deserves it, obviously, but I don’t want to _just_ give her a big rock or whatever. I want her to have something as special as she is.” 

“That’s gross,” Mitch says delightedly, taking the last sip of her coffee and throwing it out before trailing along after him. 

Marty waits for her to catch up and pulls her toque off her head, messing up her hair. “You’re one to talk,” he says over her protests. 

“What are you talking about,” she grumps, running her fingers through her hair to help it lay flat again before she puts the toque back on. 

“You and Matthews the other day, all up on each other. Willy told me you left the office arm-in-arm, too.” 

Mitch didn’t even know Willy was _there_ when she and Auston left. “I -- we’re not -- you know it’s fake,” Mitch stutters weakly, and Marty makes a disbelieving noise and, yeah, she doesn’t blame him. 

“Whatever you say, Mitchy,” he says, and leads her into another store. 

She’s quieter through this one, just makes affirming and disapproving noises based on what she thinks Marty wants to hear, and she’s not surprised when he sighs and pulls her aside when they leave empty-handed again. 

“Mouse,” he starts, seriously, and that’s how she knows he means whatever he’s about to say. “You know it’s okay if you and Auston are actually together, right? Even if it didn’t start the way you told everybody?” 

“That’s the thing,” she says, “I don’t know if we are? We haven’t, like, said anything about it, but I -- I think we’re dating?” 

“Maybe you should ask her,” he says, and it’s serious and heavy and all she can do is nod. He pulls her into a hug, lets her breathe into his jacket for a minute, and he doesn’t even say anything when she wipes at her eyes as she lets him go. 

“Thanks,” she says. 

He tugs a piece of her hair sticking out of her hat and grins at her. “C’mon. We’ve got a few more places to hit before we meet Syd for dinner.” 

“Can I invite Matty too?” Mitch asks, and Marty wraps an arm around her neck in a headlock. 

“Of course you can,” he says, and she can hear the grin. “Make it a double date.” 

She kicks at the back of his knee with one leg, and he stumbles and lets her go, both of them laughing as they make their way down the street. They’re in the same area the Christmas market is every year and Mitch gets lost in thought, thinking about her story with Auston and, like, what if she’d gotten up the nerve to actually kiss Auston on the ferris wheel, maybe at the top with all the lights sparkling down below them. Would they actually be for real dating now, would Mitch be able to touch and kiss and gush about Auston to everyone she knows without worrying about sounding like a weirdo in love with her roommate? 

Not that Mitch is _in love_ with Auston but also -- also, maybe. 

Mitch looks up, trying to see if Marty is too far ahead of her or not, and that’s when she realizes where she is. She looks at the locks on the big _LOVE_ sculpture on the wall in front of her and calls out, “Hey, Marty? I’ve got an idea.” 

-

It takes a few weeks for Marty to get a ring he likes for Syd -- he ends up finding a place that’ll make his own design, and he puts together a ring that he shows Mitch: it’s classic, understated, but special enough to be unique. Once the ring is ready, Marty invites Syd’s mom to town as a surprise, and then Mitch and Auston join the three of them for brunch in the Distillery District. 

Syd spends almost the entire brunch softly chirping Marty for letting her mom’s trip slip, and Mitch -- Mitch keeps smiling into her mimosa and squeezing Auston’s hand under the table, not wanting to ruin the real surprise. Auston keeps shooting her looks, little small smiles, and after a few drinks Auston tucks close into Mitch’s side, putting her head on Mitch’s shoulder. Syd smiles at Mitch then, soft, and Mitch tries not to blush and rests her cheek on Auston’s shoulder. 

They’re not far from Marty and Syd’s apartment, so after brunch they stop and pick up their dog Jax, and take him for a walk all five of them, aimlessly strolling and chatting about nothing in particular. Auston holds Mitch’s hand, tucked in her pocket because she’s cold, and they trail behind, watching as Marty and Syd bicker good-naturedly and exchanging knowing glances with Syd’s mom every few minutes. 

When they make it to the _LOVE_ wall, Mitch calls out, “Hey, do you want me to take your picture? Get Jax in there, make it a family pic,” just like she and Marty planned. 

“Good idea,” Syd says, smiling at her, “and then we can get one of you and Auston.” 

Auston squeezes Mitch’s hand before letting it go so Mitch can get her phone out, smiling at her. Mitch smiles back and ducks her head, pretends like she’s fooling with her phone, and then aims it at where Syd is looking at the locks and hits record. 

Syd’s got Jax’s leash in her hand and when Marty goes down on one knee behind them, Jax goes over to investigate, tugging Syd enough to turn around to look. 

“Oh my god,” she says, hands going to her mouth. 

They’re just far enough away that Mitch can’t really make out what Marty’s saying, but she can still hear Syd say, “Yes, of course,” and Mitch and Auston and Syd’s mom all cheer as Marty puts the ring on her and they kiss. 

Mitch stops the video and sends it to Syd and Marty, runs over to hug both of them. 

“I can’t believe you kept that a secret,” Syd is saying while Marty laughs. 

-

Willy bounces over to Mitch’s desk one morning, punches her in the shoulder and stands there grinning at her. 

“Ow!” Mitch exclaims, even if it didn’t actually hurt. She rubs her shoulder dramatically anyway and glares at Willy. “You’re aggressively cheerful this morning. What’s your damage?” 

“My boyfriend’s a _best-seller_ ,” he says, punching Mitch’s shoulder again with one hand and holding out his phone with the other. He’s got the New York Times Best-Seller List pulled up to the children’s picture book section and there, right at the top, is Zach’s latest book.

“Oh my god!” Mitch yells, launching herself out of her chair and directly at Willy. He catches her, holds on tight, and they kinda bounce up and down, laughing. “Congrats!” she says, and he squeezes her tighter. “Or, actually, I should tell Zach that.” 

“Tell him in person,” Willy says, pulling out of the hug. His grin is so wide, his face so proud. Mitch can’t help the grin on her own face. “We’re going out tonight.” 

“Sweet,” Mitch says. “I’ll tell him in person.” 

She texts Auston, later, when Willy’s left her desk to chase after Mo and brag about Zach some more, _out with will and zach tonight?_

Auston texts back just a thumbs up, and Mitch knows that emoji conversations mean she’s busy, she doesn’t really have time to talk, but Mitch is proud too, so proud, so before she can talk herself out of it she sends back _congrats, btw._

Quicker than she’s expecting, she gets back the blushing face and kiss blowing emojis and then, almost immediately, the two pink hearts. Mitch sends the two hearts back, and if anyone asks why she’s so happy for the rest of the day, she can just chalk it up to being happy for Zach.

-

They go out to a gay club that night, the four of them. Mitch is surprised at first, because she figured that a bestselling book meant they’d have a nice dinner, but Auston tells her they went out for a nice lunch and Zach will have plenty of nice dinners coming up, and Mitch understands. 

She understands even more about twenty minutes and two drinks in, when Zach looks at Willy and goes, “I just wanna _dance_ ,” and he grins back and they hightail it for the dance floor holding hands. 

Mitch watches them for a while, leaning against Auston at their table. “I feel like I’m watching their foreplay,” she muses after a minute, and grins when she hears Auston choke on her drink. 

“You know he’s technically, like, my boss,” she says when she can talk, and Mitch turns her grin on her and shrugs. 

“Yeah, but you’re buds,” Mitch says, and Auston just shakes her head. She’s got that tiny little smile on that means she finds Mitch really amusing but doesn’t want her to know, and Mitch just likes her _so much_ in that moment. 

“Hey,” she says, nudging Auston with her elbow. Auston’s smile gets a little firmer and wider. 

“Hey,” she says back, nudging Mitch. 

Mitch can feel her grin getting softer and fonder as she says, “Congratulations on the bestseller.” 

“You already said that,” Auston says, even while she’s puffing up just a little bit with pride like Mitch knew she would. 

“Yeah, but I’m, like, _really_ proud of you, dude. Like, publicity is really important for a bestseller, right?” 

Auston nods. Mitch can’t tell for sure in the low light, but she’s reasonably sure that Auston is blushing, has been since Mitch said she was proud. 

“So, this is like your achievement too. So congrats.” Mitch holds up her drink to toast Auston, and Auston gets this unbelievably fond look on her face and clinks her own glass to Mitch’s. 

“Thank you, Mitchy,” Auston says, and the only reason Mitch can tell is because she’s watching Auston’s lips. 

And then she can’t help it, she leans in and kisses Auston, setting her drink down so she can get both hands in Auston’s hair. Auston kisses Mitch back, both her hands going to Mitch’s back. Mitch moans when Auston’s hand dips low enough to catch in the tiny strip of skin between Mitch’s shirt and pants, and she tightens her hands on Auston’s hair and pulls the tiniest bit, making Auston gasp and open her mouth, which is exactly what Mitch was aiming for, and she smiles, scoots a little closer to press her body into Auston’s. 

Auston does this low throaty chuckle that sends shivers down Mitch’s spine, asks, “Are we really doing this?” against Mitch’s lips. 

“You bet your ass,” Mitch says, kissing along Auston’s jaw and down her neck. She can feel Auston’s skin vibrate when she laughs again. 

“Fuckin’ finally,” Auston says, and then she pulls Mitch back up to kiss her on the lips. 

-

There’s a moment, the next morning, when Auston walks into the kitchen with her normal sleepy zombie shuffle over to the coffee, when Mitch thinks all the kissing -- making out, really -- they did the night before was just a one-time thing (well. Three-time thing, technically, if you count the club, and the car ride home, and the couch for about fifteen minutes before actually going to bed. Four, if you include the elevator ride up. But there were very few moments during those three-to-four times where they weren’t touching, so Mitch feels okay chalking it up to a one-time thing). 

And then Mitch says, “Morning,” all cheerfully like normal, and Auston does that cute annoyed grunt she does and leans over and kisses Mitch, just a quick peck on the lips. 

She looks a little more awake and slightly pink when she pulls away, and for a second Mitch feels frozen -- and then she smiles, bright. 

“And what a good morning it is,” she says into her coffee, and she can see Auston smiling into her own mug. 

-

That opens the floodgates -- if Mitch thought she and Auston touched a lot before, she had no fucking idea how touchy they could be. Auston always seems to be just within arm’s length anytime they’re around each other now, and the cuddling with intent has turned into making out, kissing without any other endgame in mind. It’s fan-fucking-tastic, even if Mitch somehow misses an entire Penguins-Rangers game, complete with Sidney Crosby hat trick, because she’s sitting on Auston’s lap and discovering just how tender the skin at the hinge of her jaw is. 

They even get caught making out on the Marleaus’ couch one night, after Christina’s left the room to put the kids to bed and Patty’s left to get dessert. 

Patty comes back into the room and just laughs. Mitch jolts back, embarrassed, and buries her face in Auston’s shoulder. Auston shrugs, and when Mitch looks up at her, she’s grinning. Mitch leans up to kiss the edge of her smile quickly, going hot all over when Auston turns that grin on her. 

So they get caught kissing on Patty’s couch. Mitch can’t find it in herself to feel bad about it. 

She doesn’t feel bad about any of the endearments that start slipping out around Auston, either, especially when Auston starts using them too, starting all her texts with _babe_. The first time it happens, Mitch screenshots it, buries it in a folder on her phone so she can look at it when all this is over and remember that time she got to date her best friend, even if it was fake. 

-

(They go on more dates, too, enough that Mitch starts feeling bad that Auston is paying all the time, has to insist on buying the movie tickets _and_ popcorn. Auston looks so pleased the whole night, kissing Mitch’s cheek and holding her hand through the whole movie, that Mitch has to buy dinner the next time they go out too. 

_But it’s still fake_ , she has to tell herself every once in a while, when Auston’s face gets particularly soft and fond and she traces the tattoos on Mitch’s arm with an especially light touch. They’re just committing to the bit. 

It’s gonna be a bitch when it’s over, but for now, she doesn’t think about it, just holds Auston’s hand and brings it up to her mouth to kiss it.)

-

 _springggggggggggggg breakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ Dylan texts Mitch halfway through April. 

_dick_ , Mitch texts back. _some of us still have to work_. 

Dylan sends back the angel emoji, and then _ur still picking me up at the airport tomorrow right?_

 _thought that was a girlfriend thing_ , Mitch says, just to be a dick, and then she realizes what Dylan’s asking. _wait. what?_

_im staying with u for spring break!! did u forget_

_no_ , Mitch lies. _but y aren’t you going home?_

 _mitchy dont make me spend a week alone in sauga_ , Dylan sends back, which Mitch supposes is fair. She sighs, asks for his flight information (again, apparently), and makes a mental note to wash a set of sheets for the couch. 

The couch where she and Auston, who have been fake girlfriends for four months now, have been making out every night for weeks. 

Oh, shit. 

-

“Honey, I’m home!” Auston sing-songs as she lets herself into their apartment. She breezes over to the couch, big grin on her face, and drops a kiss on Mitch’s forehead on her way to her room to change out of her work clothes. 

“How was your day?” she calls. 

“I’m freaking the fuck out,” Mitch calls back, and Auston comes out of her room, wearing only her undershirt tucked into her slacks. 

“What’s up?” she asks, brow furrowed.

“Dylan’s visiting this week.” 

“Okay?” Auston drops onto the other end of the couch from Mitch, and it feels simultaneously too close and too far at the same time. Mitch battles with herself a minute about reaching out to hold Auston’s hand but before she can decide one way or the other, Auston takes her hand, starts playing with her fingers. 

“I haven’t told him,” Mitch says, eyes on Auston’s hand on hers. “Like, about us.” 

“So? Just tell him now.” 

Mitch groans. “He’s gonna be so mad he didn’t know I was fake dating you.” 

Auston pauses, so quick Mitch almost thinks she imagined it, and then she squeezes Mitch’s hand and drops it, stands up and heads back to her room. Mitch makes a disagreeing noise, and Auston shoots her a fondly exasperated look. “I’m just changing,” she says, and then, when she’s back in her room, “We don’t have to say anything. We can just, like, go back to how we were before.” 

Mitch snorts, leans over the back of the couch in Auston’s direction. “Are you kidding? He goes to grad school with Dvo and Fisch, he definitely has already heard about us.” 

Auston pokes her head out of her room, makes a face. “Sorry all our friends are gossips.” 

“Boys, man. They just can’t help it.” Mitch grins.

Auston laughs and ducks back into her room. 

“But so he for sure knows. I just don’t know how to tell him it’s fake.” 

“So don’t,” Auston says, walking back to the couch and shrugging as she drops onto it, closer to Mitch than before. She’s in one of her fancy pyjama short sets, because she wants to murder Mitch, apparently. 

“You’d be okay with that? With, like, pretending the whole time he’s here?” 

Auston grins crookedly at her before shrugging and looking off into space over her shoulder. “It’s not like it’s a hardship,” she says. 

Mitch laughs, uses Auston’s hand to pull her over until their bodies are falling into each other and Mitch can kiss her, lying underneath her on the couch. Auston pulls back and tucks a strand of Mitch’s hair behind her ear, looks into her eyes. There’s something there that Mitch can’t make out, but it passes after a moment and it’s just Auston, looking softly at her and leaning down to kiss her again, like she’s done so often lately. 

-

Despite her conversation with Auston, Mitch still plans on telling Dylan the truth about their relationship, she really does, but then he’s in her car, chirping her like normal and raising his eyebrows at her when Auston texts her _babe what do we want for dinner_ and Dylan reads it out loud to her. 

“Well? Tell her what you want,” Mitch says, concentrating way more than is necessary on a lane change, ignoring Dylan’s gaze and hoping her cheeks aren’t too pink. 

Dylan texts something back, tosses Mitch’s phone into the middle console and keeps staring at her. 

“What,” Mitch says flatly, and when she chances a glance at Dylan he waggles his eyebrows. 

“Babe, huh,” is all he says, and Mitch shrugs. Dylan keeps looking at her for a minute and then changes the subject entirely. 

The whole week is kinda like that. Mitch and Auston dial down the making out (mostly because their couch is constantly occupied, if Mitch is being honest) but everything else they’ve been doing -- the constant small touches, the endearments, the quick pecks when they leave each other in the morning and come home at night -- everything else is the same. Dylan never says anything, just raises his eyebrows and shoots Mitch significant looks. 

At first she thinks it’s just because Auston is almost always around, but halfway through the week Mitch takes a half-day and she and Dylan do a ton of touristy shit downtown, and he still doesn’t say anything. 

They’re at the top of the CN Tower observation deck when she thinks he comes the closest. He looks at her thoughtfully for a while as she looks out the window, pretends like she can see Ottawa like Chris told her he could when they were kids. 

“What?” she asks when she can’t stand it anymore, turning towards him. 

He looks at her for another long moment and then grins. “Will you buy me a souvenir t-shirt?” 

She lets out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and rolls her eyes. “Buy it yourself, loser.” 

“Please, Marns?” he whines, drawing out both words and draping himself over her back. “I’m a poor grad student, I can’t afford it.” 

“Don’t pout at me,” she says, because she might not be able to see him but she can definitely hear it in his voice. 

She can also hear his grin when he says, “Thanks, Mitchy,” because he knows her well enough to know when the fight’s gone out of her, and smacks a kiss on her cheek. 

She makes a disgusted noise and bodily shoves him off of her, wiping her cheek exaggeratedly. “Gross, Stromer!” 

He blows a kiss at her as he follows along behind a group of kids on a school trip towards the elevators. 

“Wha -- right now?” she asks, gesturing at the windows where, okay, clouds are rolling in to obscure the view, but _still_.

“Gotta get there before the good designs are gone!” he calls. He makes a face at her when she stays where she is and she sighs, trying not to smile, and follows him. 

In the end they get matching t-shirts -- obviously -- that Dylan insists they wear home, pulling it on over the shirt he’s already wearing. Mitch laughs but does the same. 

When Auston gets home, Mitch and Dylan are in the kitchen, giggling, still in their t-shirts over their clothes, Dylan talking Mitch through making eggplant parmesan. 

“Isn’t this cozy?” Auston asks, dropping her work bag on the kitchen table and grinning at both of them. 

“Honey, you’re home!” Mitch says, laughing, feeling like she’s up to her elbows in the egg and parmesan mixtures she’s dipping eggplant slices in. 

Auston laughs back, walks over to Mitch to kiss her hello before wiping something off her cheek. “Flour,” she explains. Her eyes are light and happy, and Mitch can’t help it, has to lean in to kiss her again, does it long enough that Dylan clears his throat behind them. 

“And then you put the slices in the baking pan,” he says loudly, and Auston grins against Mitch’s mouth, pecks her one more time before pulling back. 

“Yeah, get back to work,” she says, swatting at Mitch’s ass, walking out of the kitchen laughing when Mitch makes an affronted noise. 

“I’ve never seen you this grossly into somebody,” Dylan says wonderingly when Auston’s shut her bedroom door behind her. 

Mitch shrugs, starts filling out the baking pan with eggplant. “That can’t be true,” she says, even though she knows it is. “Remember Mat Barzal in high school?” 

Dylan snorts. “You being obsessed with giving the hottest girl in school her first lesbian experience is not the same thing and you know it, Marns. This is, like. Domestic.” 

“You’re the one who learned to cook,” Mitch chirps, but even she can hear how weak it is. Dylan punches her gently in the shoulder. 

“I’m proud of you,” he says, and it sounds like he _means_ it. Mitch shakes her head, opens her mouth to say something about it being fake, when Auston makes it back into the room. 

“Dinner ready yet?” she asks, big grin on her face, and Mitch smiles helplessly back.

-

The three of them go out for brunch before Dylan leaves town, and Auston kind of surprises Mitch when she gives Dylan a hug goodbye before Mitch drives him back to Pearson. 

“Nice to see you again, asshole,” she says when she pulls away, and Dylan laughs. 

“Right back at you, jerk,” he says. 

“Say hi to Dvo and Fisch for me, huh?” 

“You got it,” Dylan says. 

“Ready to go?” Mitch asks, and Dylan nods. 

“I’ll see you later,” Auston says quietly to Mitch before kissing her goodbye. “Drive safe, huh?” 

“Always,” Mitch says, sliding into the car, waving at Auston as she goes. 

It’s quiet in the car as Mitch pulls out into traffic, but she can feel Dylan watching her. She ignores it as long as she can, but it’s only about two minutes later when she blurts, “It’s fake.” 

Dylan doesn’t even ask what she’s talking about, just laughs and says, “Yeah, okay, pull the other one, Marns.” 

“I’m _serious_ ,” Mitch says helplessly. “We’re just faking being together until Matthew Tkachuk’s wedding next month.” 

“I didn’t know Chucky was getting married,” Dylan says, and Mitch makes a frustrated noise. 

“He wouldn’t let me come unless we were actually dating, Auston said. And you know everyone we’ve ever met is a big fat gossip, that’s how _you_ \-- that’s how you found out.” 

“Yeah, that was bullshit,” Dylan says. “You finally start dating your big gay crush and I have to find out from the fucking _Christians_?” 

“Don’t say ‘big gay crush,’” Mitch says automatically, and then, “I’m sorry, dude, I really am. I didn’t want to tell you it was fake, and I forgot that you might find out other ways.” 

“I see how it is,” Dylan says, arms across his chest. “Just forget about your best friend when you start dating someone.” He’s smiling, though, when Mitch glances over at him, and she smiles back. 

“Are you mad?” she still asks anyway. 

“No,” Dylan says, sighing. “I don’t believe it’s fake, though.” 

“It _is_ ,” Mitch insists, and Dylan laughs. 

“Then why were you still being all lovey-dovey in front of me, if you were going to tell me it was fake anyway?” 

“I didn’t know _how_ ,” Mitch says weakly. 

“Hate to break it to you, bud,” Dylan says, “but you and Auston are butt-crazy in love.” 

“No one said _love_ ,” Mitch says. Her cheeks are _burning_. 

“Hey,” Dylan says, seriously. Traffic is at a standstill, so Mitch looks at him. “Maybe it started out as fake, but I think you’re actually dating now.” 

Mitch swallows, nods. “I think so too,” she says, soft. Dylan nods back, and then grins. 

“Can I tell Davo?” 

“ _No,_ ” Mitch says emphatically. “I will tell him, thank you very much.” 

“Do it sooner rather than later, please, because I just don’t think I can keep this secret.” 

“I hate you,” Mitch says, turning back to the road, and she can hear Dylan’s grin when he says, “Love you too, Mitchy.” 

-

“Is your family coming to town for your birthday?” Auston asks one evening the week after Dylan leaves, just before Mitch’s birthday. Mitch has her head on Auston’s lap, and Auston’s been idly braiding her hair and taking it out while they watch TV.

“My parents are coming in for dinner, but Chris can’t make it. He’s got training or something.”

“Okay. Do you want me to, like, clear out for the evening?” 

“What? Why?” Mitch moves her head so she can look up at Auston, knocking Auston’s fingers out of her hair in the process. Auston doesn’t look back at her, though, just shrugs and keeps facing the TV.

“Just figured you’d want to have dinner with your parents alone.” 

Mitch reaches out and grabs Auston’s hand, and that’s when Auston finally looks at her. She looks worried, and Mitch can’t help but sweep her thumb soothingly along the back of Auston’s hand. “It’s my _birthday_ , Matty, of course I want you there.”

“Really?” Auston asks quietly, her face softly hopeful.

“Really,” Mitch says firmly. Auston nods, a small smile on her face, and then ducks down, kisses Mitch softly, her hair a curtain around them. Mitch stops holding Auston’s hand to touch her face, instead, sliding along her jaw to the back of her neck as Mitch deepens the kiss. She sits up more so she doesn’t kill Auston’s back, enough to push her into the couch a little, and Auston laughs softly, her hands tightening on Mitch’s hips. Mitch kisses her one last time and then pulls back to drop a kiss on Auston’s nose. Auston wrinkles it and smiles. 

“Always want you around,” Mitch says softly, and Auston nods. 

“Me too,” she says back just as softly. 

Mitch smiles, settles herself back on Auston’s lap, and moves Auston’s hand back to her head. She turns back to the TV, smiling when Auston lets out a soft laugh and starts braiding her hair again. 

-

They don’t talk about how they’re going to act at dinner with Mitch’s parents before they come into town. Mitch doesn’t want to tell Auston to back off, really, and she trusts her to dial down the PDA in front of her parents, anyway, so she doesn’t say anything.

She also doesn’t mention anything to her parents, just says, “Yeah, of course she’s coming,” when her mom asks if Auston will be joining them. Mitch’s mom sounds pleased about it, asks Mitch to ask Auston to suggest a place, and that’s that. 

The night of Mitch’s birthday is, like, almost disturbingly normal. Auston doesn’t hold Mitch’s hand until they’re sitting down, and then she rubs a thumb over Mitch’s knuckles under the table, charming Mitch’s parents at the same time. Even though they’ve met her before and know and like her, they both seem to be almost -- Mitch doesn’t wanna say _grilling_ her, but they sure are asking a lot of questions about her job. They both seem suitably impressed by her hand in Zach’s bestseller when Mitch brags about it, looking proudly at Auston, watching as her cheeks pink up with the praise. 

They all go back to Mitch and Auston’s place for cake and presents, and Mitch watches Auston through the three of them singing _Happy Birthday_ to her, maybe getting lost in the look on her face, and after she screws her eyes shut to make her wish and blow out her candles, she leans into Auston -- already right next to her, always within arm’s length -- and kisses her, quick but firm. 

Mitch’s parents both look fondly at them when Mitch pulls away, a little surprised at herself. The big grin on Auston’s face, though, is enough to convince Mitch she did the right thing. 

When her parents leave, they hug both Auston and Mitch. Auston looks a little shocked when they do, and Mitch just grins at her. 

“I’m so glad you found each other, honey,” Mitch’s mom says into her ear when they hug, and Mitch squeezes her extra tight. 

“Thanks, Mom,” she says softly, and lets her mom kiss her on the cheek and wish her a happy birthday again before letting go. 

“That went well,” Auston says when it’s just the two of them again, wrapping her arms around Mitch’s waist from behind and kissing her neck. 

“Not too bad,” Mitch says. “I guess you have the parental seal of approval.” 

Auston smiles into Mitch’s neck. “Your dad asked me what my _intentions_ were when you went to the bathroom at dinner.” 

Mitch gasps and turns around in Auston’s arms to look her in the face. “You are _kidding_.” 

“Nope.” 

“What’d you say?” 

Auston shrugs. “The truth, obviously.” 

Mitch freezes for a second, but then -- 

“That I’m only in it for your money and the apartment,” she says, grinning, and Mitch laughs, loud, and closes the short amount of distance between them to kiss her. 

-

Mitch spends the next couple weeks after her birthday fully, like, honeymooning out. She feels like she made a real decision after blowing her candles out, kissing Auston like that, and she lets herself bask in the fact that she’s _actually_ dating the girl she’s had a crush on for over two years. She’s even more cuddly than usual, keeps kissing any part of Auston she can reach whenever she can, talks about her enough at work that even Willy starts rolling his eyes when he sees her coming. 

She also tells Marty they’re for real at lunch one day, grinning the whole time. Marty grins back, punches her in the shoulder. 

“Congrats, kid,” he says. “Isn’t it amazing what talking can do?” 

Mitch frowns. “I mean, we didn’t actually _talk_ about anything,” and Marty makes this face like _yikes!_

“Don’t make that face at me,” Mitch says, annoyed. “I kissed her in front of my _parents_ , man. I haven’t done that with anyone since -- I’ve _never_ done that.” 

“Weren’t you doing this whole thing so her mom would think you’re dating?” 

“Well, yeah, sort of,” Mitch starts, “but I don’t see what that has to do with --” 

“Mitch,” Marty interrupts. “You gotta talk about things, that’s the only way to make sure you’re both on the same page.” 

“Fuck off, Marty,” Mitch says, sharper than she means to. She can’t stop herself, has to say snottily, “Just because you got engaged, like, fifteen minutes ago --”

“At least my girlfriend’s known I’ve been dating her since we started dating!” Marty’s louder than he should be in the mostly-quiet restaurant and harsher than Mitch has ever heard him. He sighs, then in a softer tone of voice says, “I’m sorry, Mouse, I’m just worried you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Fuck you,” Mitch says quietly, looking at the table, and then, looking at Marty again, “I’m not a child, Matt. You don’t need to treat me like one.” 

She stands up and leaves the table, leaves Marty alone, and doesn’t even look in his direction the rest of the day. 

When Mitch gets home that night, she can tell Auston’s already home because her work bag and coat are all over the kitchen table, but she’s not on the couch, so she calls, “Aus?” 

“My room!” Auston calls back, and Mitch stalks into it. 

“You would _not_ believe what Marty said to me today,” she starts to say, but only gets through “You would--” before she actually sees Auston, and cuts herself off to ask, “What are you doing?” 

Auston is sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor, a half empty suitcase next to her that honestly looks like it exploded from the number of clothes around her room. 

“Packing,” she says matter-of-factly, holding up two seemingly identical sweaters to Mitch. “Which one?” 

“The left,” Mitch says without really caring, and then, “Are those my clothes?” 

“We’re only bringing one suitcase.” She looks at the sweaters, tosses the left one over her shoulder and puts the other in the suitcase.

“Okay,” Mitch says slowly. She sits on the floor facing Auston, touches a shirt in the suitcase. “And you’re packing for me?” 

Auston snorts. “Like I trust your fashion sense.” 

“Oh, are all your friends fashion plates like you?” Mitch grins crookedly at Auston, who finally looks up at her and smiles. 

“Only, like, two of ‘em. But that’s why we’ve gotta show them up.” 

Mitch leans back on her hands. “You know we’re not leaving for like a full week, right babe?” 

Auston shrugs, turns back to the suitcase. “I deal with travel anxiety by meticulously packing,” she says, and Mitch frowns. 

“I’ve never seen you pack like this for trips home and stuff.” 

“Well yeah, those are just to see my family, you know? This is, like, introducing my girlfriend to all my college friends, and my high school boyfriend, and what if they don’t _believe_ us, Mitchy. What if they think I’m just obsessed with Matty still and I couldn’t handle going to his _wedding_ alone, because that’s what _happened_.” Auston groans, puts her head in her hands. “I can’t believe he’s getting married first,” she says softly, and Mitch’s heart feels like it _breaks_. 

She gives herself a moment to feel sorry for herself and then sucks it up, pokes Auston’s leg with one socked foot. “Hey,” she says, and Auston looks up at her hopefully. 

“We got this,” Mitch says with a confidence she no longer feels. “We’ll be the best girlfriends they’ve ever seen.” 

Auston’s smile is _brilliant_ , and she crawls forward to kiss Mitch. Mitch -- she just wants to have this, for as long as Auston will let her. She falls onto her back, lets Auston bracket her in with her arms, grabs Auston’s hips with both hands to pull her down until they’re both on the floor, giggling into each other’s mouths. 

If Mitch were a better person, she _would_ talk to Auston about it, would maybe even apologize to Marty, instead of what she does do, which is start pulling away from Auston, however subtly. She knows she shouldn’t, but she also knows -- has just had confirmed -- that this thing has an expiration date and they’re rapidly approaching it. 

Mitch wouldn’t ever back out on helping Auston, no matter how much it’s going to end up hurting her later, so to protect herself -- to protect her heart -- she stops initiating cuddles and kisses. Starts letting Auston come to her instead of the other way around. 

Auston doesn’t notice, not that Mitch can tell. She’s too nervous about the trip, packing and re-packing their suitcase numerous times, buying backup chargers for all their electronics. She saves their plane tickets to her phone and also prints them out to tuck into her purse. She even calls the hotel to double check their reservation. 

Mitch lets her do whatever she needs, just makes sure Auston’s packing her toiletries and underwear, and keeps Auston fed and hydrated. Every time she walks into Auston’s room with a sandwich or a glass of water, Auston looks so gratefully at her, says, “Thanks, babe,” all soft, leans in to kiss her. 

Mitch almost wants to keep everything just like this forever.

She can’t, though, and almost too soon, Auston is picking her up from work after lunch so they can Uber to the airport. 

“A weekend getaway?” Patty asks, eyes soft. 

“Wedding of a family friend,” Auston says, reaching out to hold Mitch’s hand. 

“How fun,” Patty says, and they exchange goodbyes and Auston and Mitch leave. 

Auston seems mostly okay on the way to the airport, though she does triple check their tickets all the way through security. She keeps a tight grip on Mitch’s hand all the way to their gate, and even after they sit down, but she’s still laughing at Mitch’s jokes, cracking some of her own in an easy way. 

It’s once they get on the plane, settled in their seats with their bags put away, that she seems to get nervous. 

She leans back in her seat, eyes screwed shut, hands gripping the armrest. 

Mitch watches her worriedly. For just a second, she has the crazy thought that she should just get off the plane before they take off, stop this dumb ruse sooner rather than later, but she knows she can’t leave Auston like that. More to the point, she doesn’t _want_ to leave Auston like that. 

“Babe,” Mitch says softly. Auston lets out the breath she’d apparently been holding and looks at Mitch. Mitch pries one of Auston’s arms off the armrest so she can tangle their fingers together. “It’s gonna be fine. Okay?” 

Auston nods, but she’s still tense. Mitch can’t help it, she leans in and kisses her, soft, and watches as the tension seems to melt out of her. Mitch smiles, moves the armrest between them up so she can press their sides fully against each other. Auston squeezes Mitch’s hand, rearranges herself until she can put her head on Mitch’s shoulder. 

“Thank you for coming with me,” she says, almost too quiet for Mitch to hear. 

“Anything for you,” Mitch says, and Auston kisses her upper arm. 

“What are we watching first?” she asks, and Mitch can’t help but smile, kissing the top of Auston’s head as she pulls out the ipad Auston loaded with stuff from Netflix for their flight. 

-

They get to the hotel not long after dinner, but since there are no official wedding events -- or events put together by whatever group of Auston’s friends are showing up from out of town -- Auston just checks them into the hotel, makes sure to ask if they can still get room service. Mitch leans against her arm and lets her take charge, taking full advantage of this last weekend of having an excuse to touch her. Auston keeps shooting her pleased little smiles, really playing it up. Mitch never wants her to stop. 

They’re heading to the elevator, key cards in hand, when someone shouts across the lobby at them. 

“It’s a bird!” 

Auston _beams_ and spins around to find the voice, shouts back, “It’s a plane!”

“It’s Superman!” they shout together as a slender dude _launches_ himself into Auston’s arms. He’s got a big grin on his face that matches Auston’s and hair that would probably be curly if it were a little longer. He and Auston are gripping each other incredibly tight, and Mitch is suddenly blindingly jealous. It gets even worse when they separate from the hug but not each other, Auston’s arm around the guy’s shoulder while the guy’s arm is around her _waist_ , what the _fuck_. To top it all off, the guy looks like a cuter Matthew Tkachuk. 

Mitch hates him, immediately. 

“Babe,” Auston says, excitedly, to Mitch. “This is Jack Roslovic, we were on the Superman line in college.”

“Oh, with Chucky, right?” Mitch asks, reaching out her hand to shake Jack’s. She takes back what she thought about him. She’s heard about the Superman line, Auston centering Jack and Chucky on the top line of their college hockey team, two of the three years they were all in school together. Mitch also knows that most of the people they’re pretending to date in front of are guys from the team, which Mitch gets. She’s still best friends with her high school hockey teammates, and she never even played on a line with Davo. 

“Yup,” Jack says.

“Jack, this is my girlfriend Mitch.” Auston sounds _proud_ when she says it, and Mitch doesn’t let herself think about that, because she doesn’t know what it _means_.

“Great to meet you,” Jack says. 

“You too,” Mitch says. “I’m gonna need any embarrassing stories you’ve got about this one in college.” She nods towards Auston, whose cheeks pink up. She lets go of Jack to wrap an arm around Mitch instead. 

“I will have you know I was a shining example of responsibility,” Auston says, fake-haughty, but the grin on her face gives her away even before Jack lets out a big laugh. 

“You were at least more responsible than your wingers, that’s for sure,” Jack says.

“Someone had to keep you two in line,” Auston says. Mitch leans into her, puts her head on her shoulder. Jack smiles at them.

“Have you talked to him lately?” 

Mitch can feel Auston tense up at Jack’s question, just for a second, and then she says, brightly, “Nope. Not since he crashed my family’s party at Christmas.” 

“Did you meet his girl then?” 

“Nah, she wasn’t there,” Auston says, shaking her head. She’s still got a smile on her face, but it’s tight and slightly uncomfortable. 

“I haven’t talked to anyone who’s met her yet,” Jack muses. “Wondering if maybe she’s fake.” 

“And this whole thing’s just an excuse to get the gang back together?” Auston asks. 

Jack grins. “Or to get you back. I always thought I’d be coming to yours and Chucky’s wedding,” he says with a laugh, and then, to Mitch, “I spent three years of college third-wheeling the two of them so hard.”

She smiles politely, thinks about pulling away from Auston, but before she can, Auston kisses the top of her head.

“Not gonna work,” Auston says. “Mitch is a definite upgrade.” 

“I really am,” Mitch says with a bravado she doesn’t feel, and Auston and Jack laugh.

“So, hey, what are you up to tonight?” Jack asks. “Because I’m meeting the Boston guys in the hotel bar in --” he checks his watch-- “five minutes ago. Shit.” 

Auston rolls her eyes. “You know Hanny won’t be here for at _least_ fifteen,” she says, and Jack laughs. “We’re gonna have to pass, though. We’ll definitely see you tomorrow?” 

“For sure,” Jack says. “I think Larks has an itinerary for us.” 

Auston laughs. “See you bright and early then.” 

“Yeah,” Jack says, and pulls Auston into a hug again. “ _Really_ good to see you, Matty.” 

“You too, Roz,” she says. She takes Mitch’s hand when she pulls away from Jack, waves with it, and heads for the elevators again. 

They’re alone for the ride up. Mitch asks, “Were you two really close?” 

Auston looks at her, sad smile on her face. “Yeah. He really helped me when Matt left.” 

Mitch nods, and then can’t help it, has to ask, “Did you two ever -- uh....” She doesn’t know how to finish that question, just kinda waves her hand in the air. “You know.” 

Auston ducks her head. “Once,” she says to the floor, and then looks up at Mitch quickly. “We just made out, though. We were both really drunk, and he was just kind of there.” She shrugs, and Mitch nods. 

“Good to know,” she says softly, and Auston grabs her hand, pulls her in until their bodies are pressed together. 

“I wasn’t kidding when I said you were an upgrade, you know.” She’s grinning and Mitch is helpless to do anything but smile back at her. “Can’t wait to show my girlfriend off to all these losers.” 

The elevator dings before Mitch can respond, drops them off at their floor. Auston leads them to their room, and Mitch spends the short walk deciding that she’s going to be all in for the rest of the weekend. She’s gonna be attentive and just a bit too touchy around Auston, let Auston show her off, and stop being jealous of anyone they meet, _especially_ Matthew Tkachuk. 

She grabs Auston’s hand when they get to the room, before Auston can unlock their door, and leans forward to kiss her, deep. 

“I’m glad I’m here too,” she says when she pulls away, and Auston smiles and leans in to kiss her again before opening their room door and -- 

There’s only one bed, of course. Fantastic. 

-

Mitch wakes up too early, octopus-ed around Auston. A cursory glance behind her at the window shows only the weakest pre-dawn light sneaking in around the curtains. Mitch lets out a soft sigh, buries her face in the mess of Auston’s hair in front of her. She’s got that sweet, slightly sweaty smell of sleep clinging to her. Mitch breathes it in and drifts back into sleep. 

The next time she wakes up, it’s to Auston fumbling around and answering her phone. 

“What,” she asks, short, voice rough with sleep. “ _Yes_ you woke me up, I’m on vacation.” 

Mitch huffs out a laugh and snuggles closer to Auston. Auston drops one hand on Mitch’s hand on her waist, half tangles their fingers together as she continues her conversation. 

“When is breakfast over?” Long sigh. “I mean, maybe we’ll make it.” She laughs. “Fuck off.” She hangs up, leans away from Mitch just enough to drop her phone on the nightstand.

“Who was that?” Mitch asks. 

“Larks.” 

Mitch presses her mouth to Auston’s shoulder in an almost-kiss. “What did he want?” 

“Team breakfast in 30,” Auston says on a sigh, rolling over to face Mitch. She wraps her arms around Mitch’s waist, buries her head in Mitch’s chest. And then she seems to hear what she said, because she says, “Ah, fuck,” while Mitch laughs.

They do get ready pretty quickly, because once Mitch is up, she’s up, and Auston’s pretty excited to see all her buddies. It’s easy to get dressed quickly, too, because Auston packed them both outfits for everything they’re doing this weekend, so she just throws today’s outfit at Mitch and Mitch ducks into the bathroom to put it on. Auston comes in when she’s brushing her teeth, brushes her teeth too, just like they did the night before. Auston grins at her around her toothbrush and Mitch can’t help but grin back; it might be dumb, but it’s just _so nice_ to get to do this. 

After they’ve both spit out their toothpaste, Mitch leans in to kiss Auston, who grins against her mouth.

“You ready for this?” she asks when they separate, and Mitch shrugs. 

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” 

Auston laughs. “That’s the spirit!” 

They run into one of the “Boston guys” waiting for the elevator, Charlie McAvoy.

“Sick flow,” Mitch says after they’ve been introduced, because she can tell he’s proud of his hair and it’s not too bad. He grins and winks at her -- Mitch rolls her eyes. Auston literally _just_ called her her girlfriend -- but Auston smiles at her, so Mitch can’t regret it. 

They run into Noah Hanifin, another Boston guy, outside the breakfast room, and it seems like the three of them are going to take a while, so Mitch just leans in and kisses Auston’s cheek, lets her know she’ll get her coffee and some breakfast, and leaves them there. 

The room seems to be mostly people for Chucky’s wedding: a few older couples, probably family friends, and there, in the corner, a group of slightly rowdy twenty-something dudes, mostly taller than Mitch, and almost every single one of them with that hockey ass. Mitch grins. Those are her guys. She even recognizes a couple of them -- there’s Chucky in the middle, arm around the chair of a pretty girl Mitch assumes is his fiancee; giggling by the breakfast bar, recognizable from pictures, are Werenski and Larks; and there’s --

“Dvo!” Mitch yells, and runs across the room to leap into Christian Dvorak’s arms, wrapping her arms around his neck while he laughs. She jumps up and wraps her legs around his waist, lets him take all her weight. 

“‘Sup, Marns?” he says. 

“Missed you, bitch,” she says. She met him and Christian Fischer one year when she killed two birds with one stone and took a trip to visit Auston’s childhood home and also helped Dylan move into his apartment. The Christians were at a bunch of the same parties and she and Dvo hit it off almost immediately, but she hasn’t actually seen him in person since. 

“Hi, Marns,” Fisch says next to them, like he thinks she’s forgotten him or something. 

“Hi, Fisch,” she says, leaning towards him to give him a high five. She almost loses her balance and has to hold onto Dvo tighter, and they both giggle as he grabs her.

“What, did you two bone down or something?” a tall dude standing next to them asks. He’s got terribly frizzy curly hair, blotchy red cheeks, and what seems to be a chip on his shoulder. 

Mitch laughs so hard she has to lean completely into Dvo, trusting him to hold her up. They were undefeated at pool chicken fights the whole week she was in Arizona, it’s fine. 

“Did I say something funny?” the dude asks, unimpressed. Mitch tries to stop giggling long enough to tell him, and then she looks at Dvo and they both start laughing again.

“Hey, let my girlfriend down, Dvorak,” Auston says, walking over to them, but she’s grinning. For one brief, crazy second, Mitch thinks about holding her arms out to Auston like a baby, to see if she can handle Mitch’s weight too. 

Instead, she unhooks her legs from Dvo, plants both feet on the ground, and leans into Auston. 

“You’re here with Matts?” the dude asks, and Auston nods, proud, so Mitch kisses her cheek, real quick.

“So don’t get any ideas, Eichs,” Auston says. Eichs rolls his eyes. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he says drily, making Mitch laugh. 

Breakfast is an almost raucous affair, which is about what Mitch expected with this group. Auston leads her around, introduces her to everybody -- she sees Jack Roslovic again, learns he usually goes by Roz in this crowd. Eichs is Jack Eichel, the last of the Boston guys, and then there’s Alex DeBrincat, the only guy shorter than Mitch, who also somehow knows Connor, which means Mitch spends at least fifteen minutes exchanging stories with him. Mitch also finally gets to actually meet Zach Werenski and Dylan Larkin, who don’t so much tell her they’re together as Werenski sits on Larkin’s lap, smirking when he groans, and feeds him fruit with his hands. 

Auston and Mitch even meet Sophie, or “the future Mrs. Tkachuk,” as Chucky introduces her. She’s a petite blonde, pretty much exactly the opposite of Auston. She’s also quiet at first, at least comparatively, but she keeps rolling her eyes fondly at Chucky and softly chirping him. Mitch decides that she might like Sophie, think she’s a good match for Chucky, but only after checking in with Auston.

She puts a hand on her leg, later, when it’s just the two of them at their table. “You okay?” 

Auston takes a moment to think about it, which Mitch appreciates, and then she smiles, soft. “Yeah,” she says, slow. “I am. Better, with you here, I think.” 

Mitch smiles back. “Glad I could help.” 

Auston leans in to kiss her, but she’s still smiling, and Mitch can’t stop smiling either, so pretty soon they’re just trading pecks and smiles and sort of giggling at each other. Eichs drops into the seat across from them and makes a disgusted noise and Mitch pulls away, prepared to glare at his homophobic ass.

Instead, he says, “Ugh. You’ve been together how long and you’re still this bad?” 

Auston laughs. “Okay, first of all, that argument is flawed, because look at Z and Larks.” 

All three of them look a table over where Dylan is currently picking the mushrooms out of his omelette and trying to toss them into Zach’s mouth, both of them giggling too much to have any sort of accuracy. 

“Fair,” Eichs says. “But they’re an anomaly. The two of you are, like, honeymoon level, still.” 

Mitch shrugs and looks at Auston. “It’s been, what, six months?” 

“Closer to seven, I think,” Auston says, and Eichs makes an affronted noise.

“And you’re serious enough to be her plus-one?” 

Mitch shrugs again. “I don’t know what to tell you, dude, I’m a lesbian.” 

There’s a moment, and then Eichs snorts. “I like you,” he declares, and Mitch grins. 

“So wait,” Auston says. “Did no one else bring plus ones?” 

“Nah,” Eichs says. “It was just you and the prom kings.” 

Mitch can _feel_ her face light up, and she looks to Auston to see if she’ll tell the story, but Auston looks _nervous_. Mitch schools her face, tangles her fingers with Auston’s under the table, squeezes her hand reassuringly when Auston shoots her a worried look. Mitch can feel Auston breathe after that, relax a little as she says, “You couldn’t even muster up someone to come with you?” 

“I had a couple prospects,” Eichs says, in that easy way guys have when they’re bragging but not quite. “But Chucky said serious partners only, and I didn’t know if either of them were going to be serious in time for the wedding. Besides,” he leans in a little closer, lowers his voice, “it’s hard, dating in the closet.” 

_Oh_ , Mitch thinks. “Tell me about it,” she says, lowering her own voice to match his. “If you don’t mind me asking, them, or you?” 

“Them, mostly. I’m not, like, _out_ at work, but my family and most of my friends know. Some co-workers, but not my boss. The important people know.” 

Mitch nods. “And are they -- are they co-workers?” 

“One of them, yeah. And honestly, I really would’ve liked to bring him, but he was uncomfortable with both of us taking time off work, thought it’d be too obvious.” Eichs shrugs, but Mitch can tell it’s bugging him. 

“That’s rough,” she says. “I was out pretty young so I’ve had a few relationships like that. I know how hard it can be, on both of you.” 

“Yeah,” Eichs says. “We sort of -- we took a break, earlier this year, because of it.” 

“Oof,” Mitch says, wincing sympathetically. “I’m sorry, man. Are you still on a break?” 

“Officially. But I’m not dating the other guy anymore. So now I’m just waiting for Sam.” 

Auston squeezes Mitch’s hand, seemingly without meaning to, and Mitch looks at her, quick.

“I know how that can be,” she says to Eichs, making a point to look at him and not Auston when she does. He looks sad, so Mitch changes the subject by asking his favorite NHL team, and then they get into a spirited discussion about the Bruins vs the Leafs -- McAvoy and Hanifin chipping in for the Bruins side, so Mitch keeps getting Auston to chip in for hers, even though she still insists she doesn’t have a favorite -- that lasts all the way through breakfast. 

Mitch knows breakfast is over because Larks stands up and claps his hands and says, “Team!” Almost everyone, including Mitch, looks up when he does. Werenski doesn’t, just groans and throws his napkin at Dylan’s face. Dylan catches it and grins. 

“In celebration of all of us being together for the first time in years -- thanks, Chuck -- I’ve put together a fun little excursion for us today! Now, unfortunately, Sophie has to leave us for the day, and the groom himself has some wedding business to attend to this morning, but we’ve got Matts’ girlfriend Mitch with us all day, and Chucky will be back this afternoon. Any questions?” 

“Yeah,” Roz says, raising his hand. “If I have a midterm, do I still have to come on the team field trip?” 

“Only if you wanna play in the game later,” Dylan says, without missing a beat, and everyone laughs. “Any real questions?” 

“What are we doing?” someone -- Mitch thinks it’s Alex -- asks. 

“You’ll see,” Dylan says with a smile, and there’s a chorus of groans. “The shuttle is leaving from in front of the lobby in 15 minutes, please make sure you wear something you can move around in!” He claps again, like he’s dismissing them, and says, “That’s all, thank you!” 

Auston looks at Mitch. “Do you need to stop by the room?” 

Mitch shrugs. “I’m good. You?” 

“I’m good,” Auston says. 

Mitch smiles, nudges her with her elbow. “You picked good outfits, babe.” 

Auston grins. “Thanks.” 

“She _packed_ for you, too? Ugh. Disgusting,” Eichs says, but Mitch can see the small smile he’s trying to hide. 

-

Larks apparently rented an actual van, which is a tight fit for the eleven of them even without Chucky. Mitch ends up in the very back row with Auston and Roz and McAvoy, and the whole ride is loud and rambunctious. At first there’s a lot of inside jokes Mitch doesn’t really get, but they’re still a bunch of hockey boys, and if there’s one thing Mitch knows, it’s how to deal with hockey boys. By the time they get to their destination, she’s chirping with the best of them. Roz’s face is entirely red and Auston’s grin is so wide it looks like it’s gonna split her face open. Mitch would chirp her for it but she can tell she’s got the same problem, so she just squeezes Auston’s hand and tries not to look too fondly at her. 

Their destination ends up being Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Calgary Olympics Museum, which Mitch is psyched about -- she loves the Olympics, especially the Winter Olympics, and she’s fully prepared to gloat over Canada’s Winter Olympics superiority around all these Americans, which she announces as they’re walking in. 

“‘As it had in 1976 in Montreal, Canada again failed to win an official gold medal as the host of an Olympic Games’,” Auston reads out loud from one of the very first plaques in the museum, and then she turns her smug grin on Mitch while Mitch laughs and shoves her. 

“Ha, get wrecked, little Canadian,” Eichs says, ruffling Mitch’s hair, and she smiles in spite of herself, even as she’s pretending to be mad. 

“Hey, how far away is Vancouver?” she asks a random employee. “I gotta school these fools in Canada’s total dominance in hockey.” 

The employee smiles at her. “Actually, even though we failed to medal in the Calgary Olympics, because the venues in Olympic Park are still used for their original purpose, Calgary has developed into a place where elite winter sports athletes train. In fact, one could say that the buildings here were directly responsible for Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in Vancouver in 2010.” 

“In your face, Eichs!” Mitch yells, and Eichs grins and pretends to chase her through the exhibit. Mitch dodges past a couple other guys in their group before she loops back around to Auston, where she wraps her arms around her from behind and uses her as a shield. 

“Save me,” she says while Auston laughs. 

“Leave my girl alone,” Auston says, and Mitch goes up on her toes enough to hook her chin over Auston’s shoulder so she can stick her tongue out at Eichs. He laughs. 

“Okay, but tell her to watch her back,” he says, doing that “I’m watching you gesture,” and Mitch laughs and waves him off. 

When they’re a little more alone -- or at least have more of a semblance of privacy, most of the guys out of earshot -- Auston puts her hands on Mitch’s around her waist and leans back into her. “Hey,” she says softly. 

“Hey,” Mitch says back, taking the opportunity to kiss the spot where Auston’s neck and shoulder meet, making her shiver. 

“Thank you for being so cool with the guys.” 

Mitch shrugs. “They’re good guys,” she says, and Auston tightens her hands on Mitch’s before turning around and breaking her hold, looking directly into Mitch’s eyes. 

“No, really, the conversation you had with Eichs? That’s the most I’ve ever heard him talk about that kind of stuff, at least sober. That was -- that was _great_ , babe.” 

Mitch drops her gaze, picks up Auston’s hand and tangles their fingers together, keeps her eyes on that. “It’s tough,” she says, more casually than she feels. “I know what that’s like.” 

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Auston says, and then she tucks a finger under Mitch’s chin to raise her head, make Mitch meet her gaze. “Hopefully you won’t have to do it again.” She’s smiling, slightly, crookedly, like she’s talking about _herself_ , like this is _real_ , and Mitch -- Mitch doesn’t know what she means, doesn’t know how to feel about it, so she just goes on instinct and kisses Auston, deep, too much for the public spot they’re in. 

Something hits the back of her head, and when she pulls away from Auston she sees it’s a crumpled up map of the museum, thrown by Werenski. 

“Break it up, lovebirds,” he calls, and Auston laughs.

“Rich coming from you, Z,” she says, pulling Mitch along by the hand to catch up with him and the rest of the guys.

“Dyls and I are low-key, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, and everyone in earshot makes some sort of disbelieving noise, even Mitch. Werenski frowns and ignores them all to catch up with Larks, draping himself across his back while Larks grins at him. 

The Olympics Museum is pretty cool, and they end up killing a few hours wandering around. Apparently the Calgary Olympics had both Eddie the Eagle and the first Jamaican bobsled team, which means the entire group ends up quoting _Cool Runnings_ at each other for about half an hour. Mitch sticks mostly to Auston’s side -- though some of that is Auston constantly staying in arm’s reach, touching Mitch in small ways -- but they do split up a little, checking out some of the displays at a slightly different pace. 

At one point, Mitch finds herself next to Werenski again, and she looks at him for just a minute before she can’t help it, and she has to ask, “Were you and Larks _really_ prom kings?” 

Werenski _glares_ at her -- if looks could kill, seriously -- and then he turns to face the rest of the group. “Matts!” he yells. Her head pops up from where she’s been looking at a different display, and he uses both hands to flip her off. “Fuck you, buddy!” 

She doesn’t even ask what for, just beams and blows him a kiss before turning away again. Mitch can’t help grinning, and she thinks, not for the first time, _I really love that girl._

Then Werenski’s looking at her again, still glaring, and she says, “Oh, it wasn’t her. It was Eichs.” 

“God _dammit_ ,” he says, and he yells Eichs’s name and stomps off to find him. Larks wanders over to her then, does that little smile of his. 

“We were absolutely prom kings,” he says, and she laughs, delighted. “We were the first same-sex couple at our high school, it was a huge deal. I have a picture,” and he pulls out his phone, does a little scrolling, and pulls it up. 

It’s Werenski and Larks, all right. They’re both in tuxes with shiny plastic crowns on their heads, their bodies facing each other with their hands on their hips, both faces turned to the camera and grinning, wide. They look so happy and proud, and when Mitch looks away from the picture and back at Larks, he still looks fiercely proud. 

“We were also voted ‘Most Likely to Stay Together’,” he says, and his face gets soft as his gaze finds Werenski again, who is glaring at Eichs while he laughs. 

“How long has it been?” Mitch asks, and Larks tears his gaze away from his boyfriend to look back at her. 

“Over ten years. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been worth it.” 

“God, I can’t even imagine,” Mitch says, and she doesn’t mean to look for Auston but she does anyway. She’s leaning into Roz’s shoulder, laughing hard at something, her face all scrunched up and red. 

“You know, we’re the only ‘Most Likely to Stay Together’ couple that has,” Larks says. “Matts and Chucky got it the next year, and they lasted longer than most, but you know how that worked out.” 

“Yeah,” Mitch says, not sure what else to say. 

“For what it’s worth,” Larks says, slowly. “She seems happier with you than I’ve seen her in a really long time.” 

_She’s a better actor than I ever realized_ , Mitch thinks but doesn’t say, and then Auston turns around and smiles at her. “I like her a lot,” Mitch blurts, eyes still on Auston. Larks claps a hand on her shoulder. 

“It seems mutual,” he says, and Mitch just nods, leaves him there to walk over to where Auston’s holding out her hand for Mitch. She kisses Auston when she gets there, smiles back when she smiles that soft one just for Mitch, and holds her hand the rest of the way through the museum. 

They eat lunch at the ridiculously overpriced cafe in the museum, and then Larks leads them all outside, clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention when they’re in front of the building. 

“And now,” he says, eyes glinting, “it’s time for the _best_ surprise.” He doesn’t say anything else, just starts leading them down the street. Mitch watches as Werenski hangs off his arm, the two of them laughing, and she tangles her fingers with Auston’s, keeps bumping their shoulders together during the whole ten-minute walk to what turns out to be a hockey rink. Mitch has never been more sure she’s hanging out with hockey guys -- her fellow brethren -- than when almost everyone stops the second they walk into the building and just. Takes a deep breath, breathing in the chill of the refrigerated air, the slightly stale smell of sweat. _Home_ , even if she hasn’t been in a rink since February, hasn’t played in one for even longer, too long. 

Larks takes them into a dressing room, still not answering anyone’s questions, but Chucky is there, as are enough pads, gloves, and skates for all of them, so it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. 

“Surprise!” Chucky says when they all make it in. “We have an hour and forty-five minutes of ice time starting at two. Let me know if you need different skates, I’ve got a hookup.” He winks, and a couple of the guys groan at him, but mostly they all start putting gear on. It’s pretty much just enough for shinny -- arm pads and helmets but no chest protectors -- and everyone’s ready quickly, excited to get out on the ice. 

Mitch looks at Auston, wearing a matching grin to her own. “Can’t believe we get to play together,” she says, and Auston, somehow, beams wider, leans in to kiss Mitch. They knock their helmets together, giggling, but they manage. 

Chucky and Larks are the two captains, and Chucky drafts Werenski first, just to fuck with Larks, so of course somehow Auston and Mitch end up on different teams. Mitch pouts at her when Larks drafts Auston, dramatically holds out her hand, but Auston just grins at her. 

“You’re going down, Marner,” she says, and Mitch fake-gasps, loud.

“Oh, is that how it is?” she asks, and Auston nods. 

“That’s how it is,” she says, and Mitch can’t stop her own grin. 

They play six a side, the captains shouting out different names for someone to jump in net every few minutes. It’s loud and fast and sloppy and _fun_ , some of the most fun Mitch has had in a really long time. 

She ends up centering a line with Dvo and Chucky once, beating Auston on the face-off and taking off towards McAvoy in net, and the three of them pass like a _dream_ , from Mitch to Dvo to Chucky back to Mitch, who snipes it in. She whoops, jumping into the glass in her celly, and yells, “Take that, Matthews,” as she skates past her. 

Auston growls and grabs her around the waist in a hug check, lifting her off the ice. Mitch tries to call for the imaginary ref, for Chucky, for anyone on her team, but she’s laughing too hard. Auston smacks a kiss on Mitch’s cheek and lets her go, and Chucky puts her in net next. 

She poke-checks a shot from Eichs, lets in a goal from DeBrincat, and when Auston stands in front of her, trying to screen her but really obnoxiously, practically standing on Mitch’s skates, Mitch wraps her arms around Auston’s waist and tries to lift her up, groaning dramatically when she only manages to lift Auston a few inches. 

“Fuck you,” Auston says, but she’s laughing so hard Mitch can barely make it out. 

“You wish,” Mitch says, and Auston’s laugh pitches up higher, turns into giggles. 

“Two for interference!” Auston calls, and Chucky looks over at them and sighs, letting a pass from Dvo slide right past him. Mitch tries to drop Auston back onto her skates and sprint up the ice to get the puck at the same time -- a goalie goal is always fucking impressive -- but Auston’s got a hand on Mitch’s arm around her waist, and they end up just spinning around on the ice and Mitch’s stick somehow goes towards the puck on its own. 

“Stick,” Mitch calls out between giggles. Chucky and Larks look at each other, Chucky looking thoroughly unimpressed while Larks laughs. 

“Okay. Time to restructure the teams I think,” Larks calls, and Werenski immediately skates into him, arms around his waist, and ducks down enough to tuck his head into Larks’s shoulder and Larks laughs again. 

They rearrange themselves into different teams, still managing to pull out six a side, but this time the couples are on each other’s teams. It means Mitch ends up on a line with Auston as her center, Eichs on the left, and if Mitch thought passing with Dvo and Chucky was good, skating on Auston’s wing is heaven. 

Auston picks Chucky’s pocket and takes off with the puck through the neutral zone, Mitch streaking up the ice on her right. Auston gets caught up by Werenski, who tries to poke the puck off her stick, but she manages to knock the puck to her skate to avoid his stick and then kick it back to herself and fake a pass to Eichs before shooting it to Mitch, all in one smooth motion. Mitch is alone in front of the net, Larks and Dvo distracted by Eichs, Werenski going that way too, and she snaps it into the net, under the blocker Fisch is holding awkwardly. 

Mitch lifts one leg in a celly, shouting, and Auston _roars_ behind her, and the next thing she knows Auston is crowding her into the boards, her entire face taken over by a grin. 

“Fuckin’ _beautiful_ , Marns!” Auston says, and then they’re kissing, even as Eichs crashes into them, whooping loudly. 

“No PDA on the ice!” Werenski yells, which is fair, because Mitch dropped her stick a while ago so she could hold onto the back of Auston’s shirt, but Auston pulls away from Mitch, makes a face, and yells back, “Just because you and your boyfriend aren’t as good as we are!” 

Werenski makes an offended face, but Mitch can tell he’s trying not to smile even as he’s dropping his gloves and skating towards Auston. 

“You wanna go, Matthews?” 

Auston grins and pecks a kiss on Mitch’s cheek real quick before she spins around to face Werenski and drop her own gloves. “Yeah, I wanna go!” 

They grab onto each other’s shirts, pretend like they’re gonna punch each other, both of them grinning. Auston fakes a punch and Werenski laughs, loud, and drops Auston’s shirt, and Auston lifts both hands over her head in victory. 

“My hero!” Mitch yells, skating into her again. 

The game never really gets back on track after that. The goalies drift out of their nets, Larks disappears off the ice and comes back with a bucket of pucks, and the group spends the rest of their ice time practicing stick-handling and trying to show each other up. 

Mitch and Auston end up with one puck between them at one point, in front of an empty net, and Auston sends it over to Mitch, lets her shoot it into the net. She picks it up when it rebounds back, kicks it between her skates and stick a few times and passes it back to Mitch. Mitch tries to do the same but she ends up missing it with her stick, accidentally lets it float away from her, and has to grab for it, making Auston grin. 

“Shut up,” Mitch says, and she shoots it at Auston a little too hard. Auston still catches it with the blade of her stick, sends it softly back to Mitch. Mitch knocks it from her stick into her skates, manages to juggle it back and forth a few times and catch it with her stick this time. She passes it softly back to Auston, who shoots it into the net in one move, and Mitch whoops softly. 

“Impressive,” she says, and Auston grins as she skates into her.

“We’re good together,” she says, arms around Mitch’s waist. 

Mitch sighs happily and tucks herself into Auston, head on Auston’s chest. “Yeah. We are.” 

Mitch can feel Auston digging her hands into Mitch’s shirt as best as she can with her gloves on, and she imagines Auston would kiss her on the top of her head if she weren’t wearing a helmet. 

_Love you_ , she thinks and almost, almost says, but then Roz is skating into them, bringing DeBrincat and about fifteen pucks with him, and they do some more passing drills until Larks calls out that it’s time to get going. 

-

They take the same shuttle back to the hotel, still loud and rambunctious and cramped, and separate in the lobby. The whole group makes plans to meet back up for dinner, and then after-dinner drinks with Chucky when he gets out of his rehearsal dinner. 

Auston and Mitch hold hands while waiting for the elevator, and then when it gets there and they get in, Auston crowds Mitch against the back wall, wrapping her arms around Mitch’s waist. 

“So sweaty,” Mitch fake-complains, but her smile is so big Auston doesn’t even pretend to believe her. 

“You’re one to talk,” Auston says, her grin looking distinctly smirk-like. 

“Guess we both need showers,” Mitch says, and Auston is full on smirking now. 

“Wanna save water?” she asks, one eyebrow going up. 

Mitch can feel her entire face go red, and she stammers for a minute before Auston, like, takes pity on her or something, her face going soft. 

“Okay,” she says quietly, leaning in to kiss Mitch. “Got it. Taking it slow.” 

“Yeah. Slow,” Mitch says, a little confused, letting Auston take her hand and lead her to their room when the elevator gets to their floor. 

-

They shower separately -- of course -- and Mitch gets dressed in another outfit Auston packed for her. She french braids her own hair while it’s still wet, and when Auston gets out of her own shower, she says, “You look nice, babe. I like your hair.” 

“I can do yours?” Mitch finds herself offering, which she doesn’t think she’s ever done before. 

“Really?” Auston asks, face lighting up, and Mitch spreads her legs where she’s sitting on the bed, pats the space between them. Auston sits down between Mitch’s legs, scooches down on the bed a little when Mitch presses her shoulder. 

“Right there,” Mitch says softly when Auston’s head is in the right spot. Auston’s hair is blown dry and silky smooth, and it smells so good that Mitch drops it a few times as she tries to gather it into three sections. She gets it eventually though, and loses herself in making sure all the sections are even as she moves further down Auston’s hair. 

Mitch didn’t have the TV on or anything, and now Auston is too far away from the remote to reach it, so the only noise in the room is their breathing and the air conditioner. The AC clicks off eventually, and then it’s just the two of them, quiet in the room, and Mitch can hear when Auston lets out a soft gasp as Mitch accidentally pulls too hard. 

“Sorry,” she says, wincing, and Auston sounds oddly breathless when she says, “It’s okay.” 

Mitch finishes the braid, wraps the hair tie from her wrist around it, and lightly tugs it.

“All done,” she says, and Auston leans back until she’s pressed up against Mitch, her head on Mitch’s shoulder. 

“We match now,” she says, small smile on her face. 

“Well,” Mitch says, suddenly awkward. “You packed our outfits.” Mitch is in a soft blue sundress, something Auston convinced her to buy about a year ago that she’s never really had an opportunity to wear, and Auston is in a deep purple blouse and black capris. They’re not _really_ matching, except for their similar hairstyles -- Mitch’s tighter against her head and Auston’s a little looser. 

They complement each other, really, like their personalities do, like Mitch has always expected her girlfriend to. 

Auston just smiles, maneuvers enough to kiss the underside of Mitch’s jaw, and Mitch _wants_. 

She cups Auston’s cheek with one hand, doesn’t let her move away, and looks in her eyes for any sort of hesitation, any reason _not_ to take what she wants. 

She doesn’t see anything but Auston looking softly back at her, sharp eyeliner and bright eyes, and Mitch kisses her, deep. 

Auston lets out a soft noise of appreciation, turns over so she’s not trying to kiss Mitch over her shoulder anymore. Mitch scoots down on the bed, goes completely horizontal instead of partially vertical, and Auston moves with her, attached at the lips, until Auston is spread out on top of her. 

“Should’ve done this before you did my hair,” Auston says, pulling away just long enough to say it, before kissing Mitch’s neck, trailing one hand around Mitch’s back, the other one sliding up her thigh. 

“Don’t ruin my braid, Matthews,” Mitch gasps, and then louder as Auston nips at her collarbone above her neckline. Auston grins at Mitch, looking up at her from under her eyelashes, and Mitch buries a hand in that smart blouse and pulls Auston up to kiss her properly. 

Mitch loses herself in Auston’s mouth for a while, the feel of Auston’s hand high on her outer thigh, under her skirt. She pulls at the back of Auston’s blouse, tries to get it out from her pants so she can touch Auston’s skin, wants to know if she’s as warm all over as she feels pressed against Mitch’s body. 

Auston gasps when Mitch touches the skin at the small of her back, pulls away to ask, “What time is it?” 

“What?” Mitch asks, dazed, and Auston grins wolfishly at her, nips her bottom lip, and then pulls away from Mitch to pick up her phone from the nightstand and check the time, and then she groans. 

“We have to be downstairs in five minutes,” she says, and starts pulling herself away from Mitch to get up. Mitch whines, holds on to Auston’s shirt tight enough that it all comes untucked. 

Auston chuckles, low enough to make Mitch shiver, and leans in to kiss her again. 

“Screw dinner,” Mitch says into her mouth, and Auston laughs again. 

“C’mon, baby. Places to be,” and she gets entirely off the bed, heads to the mirror in the bathroom to fix her outfit and freshen up her makeup. 

Mitch stays where she is, tries to urge the pulsing between her legs away. 

She has to look away from Auston for a long minute before she can. 

-

Mitch doesn’t mean to be clingy at dinner, she really doesn’t, but Auston keeps smiling at her all soft when Mitch leans into her, or swipes fries from her plate, or sets her head on Auston’s shoulder briefly, so Mitch doesn’t stop. 

She doesn’t let herself ignore the guys, either, and manages to chirp them as much as she has all day, so she feels okay about everything. 

After dinner they head to the hotel bar for drinks, meeting up with Chucky and some of his wedding party, and that’s when Auston drops Mitch’s hand for the first time since their makeout session upstairs. 

“Taryn!” she shouts, gathering a young woman into her arms, tight. 

Mitch isn’t jealous. 

She’s _not_. 

“You’re so old now,” Auston continues, pulling away from Taryn, and Mitch doesn’t, like, actually let out a sigh of relief, but it’s close.

“I just graduated!” Taryn says excitedly, and Auston exclaims and high-fives her. 

“Way to go! Where are you going to college?” 

Taryn launches into a long explanation and Auston nods, looking interested. Mitch fades back a little, lets them talk. She runs almost directly into Eichs when she turns around, and he smiles at her. 

“Chucky’s little sister,” he explains, nodding his head at Taryn and Auston, and Mitch says, “Oh!” and glances back over at them before turning back to Eichs. 

“Thanks,” she says, and Eichs shrugs. 

“You looked a little jealous,” he says, grinning, and she can’t help but smile back, punching him in the shoulder. He points at Chucky laughing with a guy who looks exactly like him, but a couple years younger. “That’s little Chucky, Brady.” And then, about an older couple near them, “And that’s Keith and Chantal.” 

Mitch nods. “Is that all of them?” 

“I dunno,” Eichs says, “but those are the only ones I know.” 

Mitch looks up at Eichs. He’s quieter than he was this afternoon, a little more subdued, a lot more like their conversation at breakfast. She opens her mouth to ask about Sam, maybe, but gets interrupted by Dvo knocking into her, throwing an arm around her shoulders. 

“Mitchy,” he says, directly into her face, and she coughs. 

“Oh my god Christian,” she says, “I just got drunk from you breathing on me.” 

Eichs snorts a laugh and Dvo frowns.

“That’s not possible,” he says, and Mitch laughs. “No, really,” he insists, and launches into a drunk explanation of how alcohol consumption gets you drunk, or something. Mitch gets pulled into it, and then another conversation with DeBrincat, when he comes over, and before she knows it, she hasn’t actually seen Auston for almost an hour. 

“Hey, have you --” she starts to ask Larks, who’s wandered over with Werenski at some point. Larks points behind Mitch, and she turns around to see Auston tucked into a corner with Chucky, both of them looking serious. 

“Oh,” Mitch says, so quiet she’s not sure anyone can even hear her over the noise their whole group is making. 

If Auston were there, she’d definitely be able to hear her. 

Mitch watches Auston and Chucky have their conversation, sees the moment Auston smiles, slight, and then glances over at Mitch. Their gazes catch, and Auston’s smile goes full-blown brilliant, even when she looks back at Chucky. Mitch ducks her head to hide her own smile, takes another sip of her drink, and when she looks back up, Chucky and Auston are hugging. It’s quick, from what Mitch can tell, and then Auston is coming back over to Mitch, wrapping an arm around her as soon as she can and laughing loudly at whatever joke Hanny is making. 

Mitch tries to forget about the hug as much as she can. It was quick, and it seemed friendlier than anything. Mitch has hugged plenty of exes, anyway. Sure, she’s never dated anyone as long as Auston and Chucky did, but that doesn’t mean anything, right?

Mitch is mostly fine when the group starts breaking up and heading back to their rooms. She keeps herself wrapped around Auston in the elevator up, grins widely when Auston looks at her. They change for bed together, neither of them ducking into the bathroom this time, and Auston catches when Mitch can’t stop staring at the muscles in Auston’s arms, and smirks at her, wide, when Mitch blushes. 

They settle together in bed for a quick cuddle, some cooking show on TV on low, and Auston’s got her head on Mitch’s chest, softly running her fingertips over the stretch of skin between Mitch’s sleep shirt and shorts, when she asks, “Hey, Mitch?” 

She sounds nervous. Mitch runs her hand through Auston’s hair, keeps taking out her french braid, when she answers, “Yeah?” 

“Do -- d’you think they can tell? The guys, I mean. That you’re here because I couldn’t handle being here alone?” 

Mitch’s heart stops in her chest and then, all at once, shatters. 

“Or, I guess, that that’s how it started,” Auston continues, but Mitch doesn’t really register it, can barely hear it over the blood rushing through her ears. 

_It’s still not real,_ she thinks. _It’s never been real_. 

“Nah,” she somehow manages to force out, her voice a million times more casual than she feels. “We’re def too good at this girlfriend thing.” 

Auston moves to rest her chin on Mitch’s stomach so she can look Mitch in the face. “Yeah, we are,” she says, smiling. “Chucky even thinks so. He said he’s never seen me so happy.” 

Mitch huffs out a laugh. “Good to know we really did fool them all. Even the most important one of all.”

Auston makes a face like Mitch just said something dumb, but it’s gone almost too fast for Mitch to register. “Yeah,” she says, and then she leans up enough to kiss Mitch’s nose before putting her head back on Mitch’s chest to watch the TV again. 

Mitch can’t pay attention to whatever stupid meal the woman is making, can’t stop thinking about Auston and Chucky together for high school and college, about Auston telling Mitch about her first big heartbreak the first time they got drunk together as roommates, a drunk Auston on their living room floor explaining to the ceiling that she moved to Canada because Arizona and Michigan were too full of memories of her ex. 

And then Mitch finally realizes something. 

She knew Chucky because he transferred to U of T her last year there; she met Auston the very next year, after Chucky had moved off to Calgary and Dylan had moved out of Mitch’s apartment and she needed a roommate to keep it. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“Hmm?” Auston hums in response. 

“If you really wanted to get away from Chucky after college, why did you -- why did you move to the place he spent his last year?” 

Auston buries her face in Mitch’s stomach for a second, and when she looks up at Mitch, her cheeks are bright pink. “Okay. Promise you won’t judge me?” 

“Of course,” Mitch says easily, even with that sinking feeling in her stomach.

“Part of me kind of thought that he’d come back to Toronto and find me there and we’d get back together.” 

Mitch can feel her face fall, and Auston groans. 

“I know! I know it was so dumb. I really chased after my high school boyfriend after college. It’s definitely the dumbest, girliest thing I’ve ever done, and I’d probably regret it if moving to Canada hadn’t turned out so well.” She smiles brilliantly at Mitch and leans up to kiss her for real this time, on the lips. 

Mitch kisses back because she can’t help it, even if she feels like she’s been punched in the chest. Of course Auston moved to Toronto for Chucky. Of _course_ she did. It’s always been about Chucky, everything. 

Even if what they’re doing is real, now -- and Mitch doesn’t think it is, can’t bring herself to think it is -- she’s only the second choice. 

She can’t be Auston’s second choice, not when Auston is her first choice. 

Mitch knows every feeling is written on her face, and Auston must notice it, because she says, “Baby, are you okay?” all worried. 

_Baby_ just about breaks Mitch, and it’s almost all she can do to force a smile, somehow make her face look normal. “Yeah, I -- I forgot Dylan texted me earlier, I should -- I should call him back.” 

“Okay,” Auston says, reaching for the remote to mute the TV, and Mitch slides out from under her, as fast as she can. 

“No, no, don’t worry about that,” she says -- babbles, really. “I’ll head down to the lobby to call him. You can stay here. I’ll be back soon.” 

“If you’re sure,” Auston says, and Mitch nods as she puts on one of the complimentary hotel robes and heads for the door. 

“I’ll be back soon,” she says again, and Auston says, “I’ll be here,” with a soft smile that Mitch -- Mitch can’t think about right now. 

She sits in the lobby and calls Dylan crying. 

“We have to break up,” she says when he answers, doesn’t even let him get a word in. 

“What? What happened?” 

“Nothing. Nothing really, but it’s not _real_ and she’s only with me because Chucky is getting married, and we have to go home and go back to normal and -- we have to break up, Dyls.” 

“Breathe,” he instructs, instead of addressing anything she’s said, and she snaps, “I don’t want to, my dream girl wants to break up with me!” 

“Marns. Take a deep breath,” he says, calm, and she huffs and does what he says. 

She feels a little better after, but she’s not about to admit it.

“Now,” he says. “How do you know she wants to break up with you?” 

Mitch shrugs. “I don’t, really, I guess. But it was only supposed to be through the wedding.” 

“Yeah, at first,” Dylan says. “Do you really think she still feels that way?” 

“No,” Mitch says, softly. “It feels real.” 

“Because it is, dumbass. I knew that the second I saw the two of you together.” 

“Okay, no, that was still -- that was still mostly fake,” she says, but it’s weak, and she’s expecting Dylan’s dismissive noise. 

“I know you tried to tell me that, but Auston definitely thought it was real.” 

Mitch sits up a little straighter. “What? How do you know?” 

“I told her she had to treat you right, make sure not to break your heart, and she didn’t insist it was fake like you did, just said she never wanted to hurt you. It was very soft and gross, honestly.” 

“You gave her a _shovel talk_?” 

“Of course I did,” Dylan says matter-of-factly. “You’re my best friend, and you’re notoriously bad at falling too hard for pretty girls.” 

“And she -- she didn’t say it was fake?” 

“Of course not, Marns, you idiot. She’s fully in love with you.” 

“ _What?_ ” 

“She agrees that you deserve the world, and you’re too soft for your own good, and she wants to protect you, all that good stuff. She thinks the sun signs out of your ass.” 

“She does?” Mitch asks softly, and Dylan makes an affirming noise. 

“Dvo and Fisch agree, too. She’s been talking about you nonstop for months, and they’ve been texting me all the gross shit you guys have been doing all day. Did you honestly make out on the _ice_ today?” 

Mitch’s cheeks flush. “It was the heat of the moment,” she protests, and Dylan snorts. 

“Whatever, dude. Look, just -- stop thinking you can’t have this. You’re both really good for each other, if you get your head out of your ass and just let it happen.” 

“What about the Chucky thing?” Mitch asks, her last real defense against letting herself be happy with the girl she’s wanted for years. 

“ _What_ Chucky thing? They’re just high school sweethearts. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Maybe that’s the reason this whole thing started, but that’s not why she’s still with you. She is butt-crazy in love with you, just like you are with her. Just like I told you in April, idiot.” 

Maybe it’s how many times Dylan has called her dumb, but Mitch feels like maybe she’s ready to believe him, finally. She exhales, loud. “Thanks, asshole,” she says. 

“Anytime, dick,” he says back, and then, “You’re good, right?” 

“Yeah,” she says, slow. “I am.” 

“Good,” Dylan says, and then hangs up on her. Mitch sends him the middle finger emoji and then a heart. She gets a heart back and feels a little better when she heads upstairs. 

Auston is curled up in the middle of the bed when Mitch gets back to the room, and she smiles sleepily at her and holds out her arms. 

“Come to bed,” Auston says, and Mitch complies. 

-

They have room service breakfast late the next morning, taking their time getting ready for the wedding. Auston packed them almost matching dresses, pale pink for Mitch and bright pink for Auston, and Mitch asks Auston to help her with her makeup, which Auston uses as an excuse to do it for her, holding Mitch’s face steady with her hand, looking into her eyes as she highlights her cheeks. 

Now that Mitch is looking for it, watching Auston like she’s actually in love with Mitch, she can’t stop seeing it in the way Auston looks at her, soft and fond. It’s the same way Auston has been looking at her for months, the same way Mitch has felt like she’s been looking at Auston for years. It’s almost too much for Mitch to handle, and she keeps having to duck her head to try to keep her feelings in check so they’re not written all over her face, but even then she can’t help it, has to touch Auston. 

Auston doesn’t seem to mind. 

Mitch keeps a close eye on her during the ceremony, watching to see if Auston seems too overly fond of Chucky, tears up too much watching him and Sophie exchange vows. 

She doesn’t, though. She keeps her hand tight around Mitch’s, keeps shooting her happy little looks. They catch each other’s gaze during the vows and hold it, for just a moment. It feels heavy, between them, full of importance, and then Auston leans in and kisses her. 

_I love you_ , Mitch almost says when Auston pulls away, and for the first time, she thinks maybe Auston will say it back. 

-

Mitch and Auston are at a table with most of the rest of the hockey players at the reception, and Mitch can’t help but relax during dinner and most of the speeches, chirping everyone and getting chirped with the best of them. Auston keeps touching her, squeezing her thigh and bumping their shoulders together, grin constantly on her face. They all start drinking with dinner, all of them slowly getting drunk and loose, always happy. 

By the time the speeches are over and the dancing has started, Mitch is well past tipsy and can’t stop leaning on Auston, arm around one shoulder, chin on the other, so their faces are right next to each other. Auston can’t stop grinning, keeps dropping kisses on Mitch’s cheek. 

“I think you two are actually worse than Z and Larks,” Hanny says once. “I didn’t think it was possible.” 

Mitch shrugs and kisses Auston’s cheek. “We’re definitely cuter, that’s for sure,” she says loud enough to get Werenski to glare at her, and then she laughs and stands up. “I’m going to dance,” she says. She tangles her fingers in Auston’s, pulls her to her feet. “Come with me,” she commands, eyebrows up. 

“As you wish,” Auston says, and kisses Mitch when they get to the dance floor, wrapping her arms around Mitch’s waist so they can sway together, fast music be damned. 

They last a couple dances like that, and then Mitch pulls away enough to fast dance, keeping Auston’s hands in her own, both of them giggling. Neither of them are good at dancing, definitely, but this is probably the most fun Mitch has had in a while. 

After about twenty minutes, they try to leave the dance floor back to their table to get drinks, and Auston gets caught by Chantal Tkachuk. 

“I was disappointed your parents couldn’t make it,” Chantal says, and Mitch should probably stay -- it’s polite to stay -- but she’s dying of thirst so she just kisses Auston on the cheek and heads back to their table, grinning at the soft blush spreading across Auston’s face. 

“You know,” Roz says, watching as Mitch sucks down the water at her plate, her eyes on Auston. “Auston’s never actually mentioned a serious girlfriend before.” 

“Oh?” Mitch asks, tearing her gaze from Auston to actually look him in the face. He’s grinning at her. 

“Yup,” he says. “And she’s been pretty good about keeping me up to date on all her dating adventures.” 

“You’re the Miranda to her Carrie, huh?” 

“I’d probably call myself Samantha,” he says with a laugh. “But seriously. You’re all she’s talked about for, like, _months_. Longer than you’ve been dating, I think.” 

Mitch can feel her own cheeks getting red, and she looks away from Roz, back to Auston. Auston catches her eye, grins at her. 

“Good,” Mitch says, definitively. “Excuse me, I’m gonna dance with my girlfriend.” 

“Go get ‘em,” Roz says, laughing again. Mitch ignores him, makes a beeline for Auston. 

“Missed you,” she says, and Auston laughs and wraps an arm around her. 

“Tell your parents they were missed,” Chantal says before walking away, and then it’s just Mitch and Auston, alone together at the edge of the dance floor. 

“I’m really glad I’m here,” Mitch says, soft, and watches as Auston’s face gets impossibly fonder. 

“Wouldn’t wanna be here with anyone else,” she says, and Mitch knows it’s true. 

-

The rest of the night passes in a blur, and Mitch and Auston pour themselves into bed after midnight, trading sleepy kisses because they’re too tired to do anything else. They wake up wrapped together late the next morning, just enough time for the big going away brunch Larks has arranged for their group of hockey players. It’s the most subdued Mitch has seen everyone there, all of them nursing hangovers. She still manages to exchange numbers with almost all of them, and she makes sure to give a hug to Eichs, asks him to keep her updated on everything. He squeezes her tighter in response, thanks her for listening and caring, and when she pulls away, Auston’s right there, smiling proudly at her. 

They split a cab to the airport with DeBrincat and Roz and separate after security, all of them going in different directions. Auston keeps that same tight grip on Mitch’s hand she had on the flight on the way there, but she seems overall more relaxed. 

Mitch -- Mitch at first thinks about waiting until they’re back in their apartment, back in their own shared space, but she watches as Auston laughs at something someone’s texted her and she can’t help herself, has to say something. 

“Hey,” she says, and Auston turns that beautiful smile of hers to Mitch. 

“Hey,” she says back. 

“I’m in love with you,” Mitch says, and Auston’s face lights up even more, her eyes sparkling. “I wanna date you.” 

Auston rolls her eyes and laughs. “I’m in love with you too, dumbass. What do you _think_ we’ve been doing?” 

“Oh,” Mitch says, thinking about it, and then “ _Oh_. Everyone was right, huh?” 

“Yup,” Auston says, grinning, and kisses her, deep. 

“Hey,” Mitch says in between kisses. “Can we start over, maybe? I wanna take you on a date and know that’s actually, y’know, what I’m doing.” 

Auston laughs, bright and happy, and it’s the best sound Mitch has ever heard. “Okay,” she says. She tucks a stand of Mitch’s hair behind her ear, lets both hands rest on Mitch’s face after so she can kiss her again. “But just so you know,” she says when she pulls away this time. “I _do_ plan on putting out on the first date.” 

Mitch laughs, loud, and keeps kissing her girlfriend right there in the middle of Calgary International Airport. 


	2. gonna rock your body 'til canada day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i refuse to apologize for this chapter OR the title, from the seminal hit "let's go to the mall" by robin sparkles

The Marleaus have a barbecue for Canada Day, and then Zach and Willy have a “drinking and watching fireworks on the balcony” party, and Mitch and Auston make the most of it and dress to theme. 

Mitch wears an incredibly soft light pink muscle tank where the armholes droop so low Auston can see the lacy red bralette she’s wearing under it, and she pairs it with red and white maple leaf printed board shorts, red maple leaf sunglasses, and a backwards white snapback. She looks like a frat douche and Auston is embarrassingly Into It. 

Auston, meanwhile, is being an obnoxious American and wearing a sleeveless royal blue bodysuit under a red and white striped miniskirt and white star sunglasses. Mitch keeps making these annoyed little noises when she looks at her but also can’t stop touching her, so Auston’s pretty sure Mitch is just as Into It as Auston is into her. 

It’s been just over six months since they started “fake dating,” about seven months since their official fake anniversary, and they’ve been together together, for real with both of them knowing it, for just over a month. 

Auston doesn’t wanna speak out of turn -- especially because she spent a pretty confusing, like, three months assuming they were for real dating, only to have Mitch keep saying it was fake, even after they spent full weekends making out on their couch with no one around -- but it seems to be going pretty well so far. 

Which is to say, they’re only two drinks in, and here she is, on the counter of the Marleaus’ downstairs bathroom, Mitch between her legs and kissing down her neck, pulling the strap of her bodysuit off her shoulder. 

“I can’t believe you’re in this weird one-piece bathing suit thing so I can’t even go down on you easily,” Mitch bitches, kissing the top of Auston’s breast, where her tan slightly starts to fade. 

“We’re in your coworker’s bathroom,” Auston says, amused, but when Mitch just makes a disgruntled noise, Auston grabs her dumb muscle tank in both hands and uses that to bring Mitch closer so she can kiss her, deep and sloppy and dirty. Then she wraps her arms around Mitch’s neck, nips at her earlobe, and whispers, “There are snaps,” into her ear. 

“Ugh,” Mitch says, grabbing Auston’s legs behind her knees to pull her closer to the edge of the counter. “This whole outfit is ridiculous.” 

“You usually love it when I wear Maple Leafs blue.” 

“Not on Canada Day!” Mitch exclaims, and then she’s kissing across Auston’s chest again as her hand slides up Auston’s leg to start undoing the snaps. “Your underwear better have a big maple leaf on it, I swear --” 

She cuts herself off and looks down at where Auston’s bodysuit is unsnapped, and then back up at Auston’s face. 

“You’re not wearing any underwear,” she says. 

“Nope,” Auston says, grinning. 

“That’s so -- that’s so _dirty_ ,” Mitch says, delighted, and then she’s dropping to her knees, throwing Auston’s legs over her shoulders. 

“You like it?” Auston asks, but it comes out as a gasp because Mitch already has her mouth on Auston’s clit. “ _God_ , how are you so good at that?” 

Mitch flattens her tongue and licks a wide stripe up Auston’s pussy and then grins up at her and shrugs. “Lotta practice,” she says, and Auston groans and pushes Mitch’s head back down. She keeps one hand on Mitch’s head as she keeps licking, fucking Auston with her tongue, and then, when she pulls off just enough to get two fingers in Auston, Auston pulls Mitch’s snapback off her head and puts it on her own, tugging the brim down low over her face as she buries her hands in Mitch’s hair. Mitch fucks Auston with two fingers, then with two fingers and her tongue, and then three fingers as she sucks on Auston’s clit, and Auston pulls Mitch’s hair as she comes, curling her body over Mitch’s head, knocking the snapback off her head in the process. Mitch keeps her mouth on Auston the entire time, until Auston leans back against the wall and pulls Mitch up to her again, licking the taste of herself out of Mitch’s mouth. 

“You are so fucking hot,” Auston says while kissing her, and Mitch grins and wraps her arms around Auston, holds their bodies tighter together. 

“You’re not too bad yourself,” Mitch says. “Don’t even mind the outfit as much.” 

“Yeah, I knew you’d like it.” Auston slides her hands up Mitch’s shirt, stopping to pet the edge of the lace of her bralette, and then she pulls herself away from Mitch, finally, to try to pull her shirt off. Mitch lightly slaps her hands down, grinning. 

“Wait, baby,” she says, pecking a quick kiss on Auston’s lips when she whines. “Save it for later.” And Mitch waggles her eyebrows and winks. Auston laughs. 

“How am I in love with you?” she asks disbelievingly, and Mitch’s whole face goes soft, still, like it always does when either of them talks about love. 

“I don’t know but you sure are,” Mitch says, and Auston can feel her own expression go fond. 

“I sure am,” she says, and this time when she pulls Mitch in the kiss is sweet, slow. She could stay like this forever, just wrapped up in Mitch, except for the pounding at the door. 

“It’s been like fifteen minutes, asshole,” Marty calls, and Auston has to bury her face in Mitch’s shoulder so she doesn’t laugh too loudly. 

“Be right out!” Mitch calls sweetly. Auston hops off the counter, snaps her bodysuit back up, while Mitch washes her face and runs a hand through her hair, trying to make her hair look less like she’s just been having sex. 

“Lost cause, I think,” Auston says, picking up Mitch’s snapback and putting it on top of her sex hair, backwards. 

“It fits the whole vibe I’m going for, anyway,” Mitch says with a shrug, and Auston laughs and lets her lead them out of the bathroom, hands entwined, right past a fondly exasperated Marty.

**Author's Note:**

> \- i am on [twitter](http://twitter.com/delightfulalot) and also [tumblr](http://delightfulalot.tumblr.com)  
> \- untagged relationships include john tavares/pk subban! jack eichel/sam reinhart (also, maybe, jack and jeff skinner)! hilary knight and freddie andersen are just friends (possibly functional exes)!  
> \- pk and johnny have a ten year old girl named Ava who is incredibly smart and confident and beautiful who only cheers for her parents' teams. she went to a small reading with zach and a couple of leafs once months ago and she STILL talks about it  
> \- pls, this is my favorite thing i wrote for this story that DOESN'T FIT bc it's auston's pov during the matthews' christmas party:  
> "The Tkachuks are here, Matty wants to talk to you.” 
> 
> Auston freezes. “Why?” she asks. Breyana shrugs.
> 
> “Who knows? To be a dick, probably. That whole family is full of dicks.” She sighs. “Too bad I gotta make out with Brady later.” 
> 
> “You don’t have to,” Alex says.
> 
> “No, I’m gonna,” Brey says.  
> \- i'm sorry to be sort of mean to the tkachuks but they're all a bunch of scrappy fighters, they can take it  
> \- also, YES the entire matthews family calls him matty tkachuk  
> \- what's mitch's job, do you ask? WELL [i open my mouth to explain just as an 18 wheeler goes by, blaring its horn]. see! wasn't that obvious  
> \- how did a couple of girls manage to get on the leafs kiss cam? JOHNNY TAVARES, OBVS. auston wouldn't shut up about how she was fake dating the girl she was in love with and boring bisexual mom john tavares just wants to see her wannabe-Chill bisexual work friend Get Some  
> \- do i wish there were more leafs here? yes. did i sometimes forget which usa boys i put into this fic? also yes. sorry for not using you to your full potential, brinksy  
> \- auston has AT LEAST kissed all the team usa boys, and also had at least!!! one threesome (eichs/hanny. also possibly the superman line)  
> \- the first time zach stops by their apartment after auston and mitch have confirmed they're no longer using both bedrooms he 100% absolutely brings them a little succulent for above their kitchen sink as a housewarming gift, which is great bc mitch has managed to kill most of theirs  
> \- brody marleau spends the ENTIRE canada day barbecue glaring at auston  
> \- if you don't think auston and mitch also fucked in zach and willy's bathroom you're kidding yourself


End file.
